Abstract:
In the present study, Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West has been explored as a trauma narrative in
order to analyze the lexical depiction of trauma. The study aims to explore how the author
has dealt with the traumatic conditions of the characters’ lives and how such context have
affected the linguistic patterns of the characters. The researcher has employed Cathy
Crauth’s Unclaimed Experience and Michael Hoey’s Lexical Priming Priming as the
theoretical framework for this study. Unspeakability, speakability, latency, repetition and
testimony are the tropes of Crauthian theory and Lexical Priming refers to study the role
of individual lexis in fictional and creative contexts. The purpose of this research is to
explore how Mohsin Hamid uses lexical items to depict the trauma and how does he
construct the meaning of trauma in Exit West. The study has followed a qualitative
approach while the frequency of the sample of trauma lexis used in the novel has been
checked through MS Word. The results attest that Exit West is a trauma narrative of
Crauthian strain and the author has used lexical markers for trauma tropes. Trauma has
been observed through the negation of non-trauma situation and trauma exemplification.
The narration of the novel is about trauma and the study of disturbed meanings and
grammars of lexical items has revealed that the narration is also traumatized.
