Psychoanalysis: A Study of Margaret Atwood, Arundhati Roy, and Kiran Desai

Abstract

This research paper investigates the use of psychoanalysis with special references to selected fictional and artistic works of famous writers like Margaret Atwood, Arundhati Roy, and Kiran Desai. It emphasizes how trauma, authoritarianism, and unconscious wants shape and evolve both personal identities and societal experiences. The psychosomatic effects of patriarchal dominance and social compulsion or familial coercion are reflected in Atwood's writing (The Hand Maid’s Tale, Surfacing, The Blind Assassin), which frequently deals with female subjectivity, terror, and memory. Roy shows in The God of Small Things how cultural taboos, childhood trauma, and forbidden desires lead to broken identities and silenced voices in the family and community. Her other works deal with gender or transgender problems. Alienation becomes a major theme in the inner lives of the characters in Desai's The Inheritance of Loss, which depicts psychological displacement brought on by migration, colonial legacies, and generational disputes. This study investigates the symbolic aspects of memory, repression, and desire in their tales from the viewpoints of Freudian, Lacanian, and feminist psychoanalysis. The comparative study shows how these authors dramatize the interaction between individual psychology and more general historical, cultural, and political influences through writing.