Narrating trauma in women‘s literature: Exploring South Sudan and Darfur in Arwāḥ Iddū (‘Edo’s Souls’) by Istīlā Qāytānū and ‘Tears of the desert’ by Ḥalīmah Bašīr

Abstract

This article examines the lived experiences of women in South Sudan and Darfur, the coping mechanisms they developed in response to wartime trauma, and the ways these experiences are both shaped by and reflected in the traumatic literature authored by Sudanese women. These writers made the deliberate decision to leave their homeland in pursuit of safety and peace, yet they continue to bear witness to their nation’s suffering through their narratives. The article explores the impact of trauma not only as a lived condition but also as a critical framework through which Sudanese women's literature can be interpreted.

At the core of this inquiry is an analysis of the deeply painful and often shocking experiences endured by women, as well as the burdensome social roles and expectations imposed upon them during both war and so-called peace. It foregrounds the harmful cultural attitudes that hold women accountable for conflicts they neither initiated nor controlled—resulting in shame, isolation, and the fragmentation of family and community. The article contends that the years of violence in Darfur and South Sudan have given rise to a powerful body of literature authored by women displaced from their homes and histories. Trauma and violence, it argues, function not only as thematic concerns but as structural forces that shape the very form and expression of these narratives. Trauma becomes a reciprocal force—both the subject of and the lens through which women's war literature in the Sudanese context is written and understood.