A “Phantom Pain”: The Insidious Trauma of Migration in Fadia Faqir’s My Name is Salma

Abstract

This article reads Fadia Faqir’s My Name is Salma (2007) as a narrative of insidious trauma. The text’s oscillation between a violent past and a confusing present, and the mournful disposition of the narrative perspective invite questions about the role of memory in the aftermath of violence, and the link between migration and psychic trauma. And while it is not difficult to understand the protagonist’s post-traumatic response to her pre-migration history of violence and cruelty, her confused reaction to the demands of the experience of migration does not fit in with classical, event-based models of trauma, which revolve around the notion of a singular, catastrophic event. Salma’s experience as an immigrant, I would suggest, is best understood in light of recent postcolonial revisions of major creeds of trauma theory, particularly the idea that minor, quotidian acts of violence on the psyche could trigger a post-traumatic response.