Devouring Mother Reinventing: The Stereotype of The Archetypal Mother in Burnt Sugar

Abstract

This thesis explores the reinvention of the archetypal Mother in Avni Doshi's novel Burnt Sugar, a novel that challenges classical depictions of mother figures in South Asian literature. The book presents a complex and emotionally charged mother-daughter relationship that challenges the idealised image of the self-sacrificing mother. The overall goal of this research is to examine how Doshi reinvents the mother archetype based on Cathy Caruth's trauma theory of Unclaimed Experience, and also examines intergenerational trauma transmission, emotional neglect, and the search for identity. The research finds an interest in the lack of South Asian literary studies, where mother figures are depicted in binary terms, wholesome or monstrous, without any concern for their psychological complexity. The research is significant because it contributes to feminist and postcolonial studies of literature by offering a sophisticated reading of motherhood based on trauma and memory. Through Braun and Clarke's six-step thematic analysis, this research systematically examines recurring themes of abandonment, fragmentation of identity, and unresolved trauma. The study's research findings reveal that Burnt Sugar challenges the conventional maternal stereotype, depicting motherhood as complicated, conflicted, and constructed by personal and societal forces. This thesis, briefly, contends for a bigger, more realistic representation of maternal identity in contemporary fiction.