Published Paper Details:

The contemporary trauma studies in literature digs into the individual and collective social response towards a disaster paired with post- structural, postcolonial and socio- cultural theories. The word trauma carries a more liberal sense today encompassing not just a terrible event, but also any kind of overwhelming and distressing experience. Trends in trauma and disaster studies are mostly connected with the effects on the human society and tend to ignore the other living beings. Disaster and trauma is experienced by all the living beings alike, include the humans, but the humans prove to be more privileged than the rest. This paper studies Thakazhi Sivasankarapillai�s Vellappokkathil, (translated as In the Flood by P. P. Raveendran) from the perspective of a disaster- affected animal by analysing his trauma instead of that of the individual. In the scenario of that great flood which shakes the normality of the entire population residing in the village, the humans are seen to be rescued in the boats. The dog is left ignored, isolated and panicked in the flood so that the dog�s expressions, gestures, sounds etc. become manifestations of the traumatic experience. The dog is a perfect representation of a traumatic disaster victim which is marginalized by being unseen, unrescued and ignored by the family to which he stays loyal unto the last. The finding is that even in a disaster the barriers between the privileged and unprivileged rise up. Though not about class or caste, the species and language become factors of discrimination where the severity of trauma is represented in voices of the unheard dog rather than what is seen in the rescued humans.