1. Home
  2. Vol 3, No 2 (2024)
  3. Setiawan

Freud's Mourning and Melancholia and Arissa’s Loss and Grief in Shaila Abdullah’s Saffron Dreams

Badrani Tatsbita Aqwiya Setiawan, Bulan Ramadhani Ali, Anita Anastasyah Tanjung, Asmaa Muhammad Othman Elzieny

Abstract


This research aims to discover the mourning and melancholia that the main character, Arissa, experiences in Shaila Abdullah’s Saffron Dreams (2009). By using close textual analysis, we investigate the ideas of loss and grief as well as the struggles of Arissa lives in the US and how she solves her problems. This research engages with Sigmund Freud’s theory that discusses about mourning and melancholia in Abdullah’s novel. The findings reveal that Faizan's death was the beginning of the problems faced by Arissa. She felt unable to live forward because she felt her world collapsed immediately and her dreams had vanished together with Faizan's death. In this novel, Arissa's melancholia appears whenever memories of Faizan come, and it affects her mind. However, the relationship between mourning and melancholia is formed due to Faizan's sudden death in the 9/11 tragedy in the Unites States, and the birth and presence of Raian have relieved Arissa's sorrowful and miserable since Faizan's death. Moreover, Raian is a significant factor in eliminating Arissa’s mourning and melancholia in the novel. Thus, Abdullah’s novel can be used an example to understand Freud’s mourning and melancholia that the protagonist’s experiences and struggles to solve her conflict within herself and beyond as a Muslimah-American who struggles to survive because of mourning and melancholia after 9/11.

Keywords


Abdullah’s Saffron Dreams; Mental Disorders; Pakistani-American Muslimah Literature; Phase of Mourning; Phase of Melancholia

References


Abdullah, S. Saffron Dreams. Modern History Press, 2010.

Aftab, M. The connection between psychology and literature. MinuteMirror, February 6, 2022. https://minutemirror.com.pk/the-connection-between-psychology-and-literature-25863/

Amalia, E. R. Gangguan Kejiwaan Destruksi Melancholia pada Yuuko Moriguchi dalam Film `Confessions` Karya Kanae Minato, 2017.

Asiyah, N. Pakistani-American Muslim women identity negotiation as reflected in diaspora literature. Leksika: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra Dan Pengajarannya, vol. 14, no. 2, 2020. https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/499923-pakistani-american-muslim-women-identity-c3bb25d0.pdf

Atar, Ö. Masculinities in Muslim Women`S Post-9/11 Novels: Men in The Night Counter and Saffron Dreams. Vol. 8, no. 2, 2021. https://doi.org/10.17572/mj2021.2.480495

Chandio, M. T., & Sangi, M. K. Locating Muslim Female’s Agency in Post-9/11 Fiction: A Reading of Once in a Promised Land and Saffron Dreams. International Research Journal of Arts and Humanities, vol. 48, no. 48, 2020. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Muhammad-Chandio-3/publication/350438891_Locating_Muslim_Female's_Agency_in_Post-911_Fiction_A_Reading_of_Once_in_a_Promised_Land_and_Saffron_Dreams/links/605f3b08458515e83476c1d9/Locating-Muslim-Females-Agency-in-Post-9-11-Fiction-A-Reading-of-Once-in-a-Promised-Land-and-Saffron-Dreams.pdf

Dar, A. The relationship between literature and psychology. International Journal of Applied Research in Social Sciences, vol. 4, no. 8, 2022. https://doi.org/10.51594/ijarss.v4i8.382

Freud, S., Jones, E., Abraham, K., Ferenczi, S., & Simmel, E. Psycho-Analysis and the War Neuroses. DigiCat, 2022.

Ghasemi, Z., Dashtpeyma, N., & Shooshtari, S. M. A. Trauma and Recovery in Shaila Abdullah’s Saffron Dreams. Critical Literary Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, 2022. https://www.doi.org/10.34785/J014.2022.508

Hardianti, S. Gangguan Kejiwaan Melancholia dalam Cerpen An Imaginative Woman Karya Thomas Hardly dan Novel Half Of A Yellow Sun Karya Cimamanda Gozi Adichie: Studi Perbandingan. Jentera: Jurnal Kajian Sastra, vol. 11, no. 2, 2022. https://doi.org/10.26499/jentera.v11i2.2855

Knutsen, T. The dynamics of grief and melancholia. In Tidsskrift for Den norske legeforening. Tidsskr Nor Legeforen, 2022. https://tidsskriftet.no/en/2020/03/essay/dynamics-grief-and-melancholia

Manalu, C. A. Mourning and Melancholia in Julie Buxbaum’s What to Say Next Novel. Journal of English Letter’s Student, vol. 1, no. 1, 2022. http://openjournal.unpam.ac.id/index.php/PNP/article/view/21606/0

Naik, G. A., & Kapur, D. Deciphering Mourning and Melancholia in Herta Muller’s The Fox Was Ever The Hunter. Palarch’s Journal Of Archaeology Of Egypt, vol. 17, no. 6, 2020. https://archives.palarch.nl/index.php/jae/article/view/5102

Rawat, A. S. An Overview of Descriptive Analysis. Analytic Steps, March 31 2021. https://www.analyticssteps.com/blogs/overview-descriptive-analysis

Sarror, S. 9/11 Widow: A study of Shaila Abdullah’s Saffron Dreams. Think India Journal, vol. 22, no. 14, 2019. https://thinkindiaquarterly.org/index.php/think-india/article/view/12380

Starkstein, S. Sigmund Freud and the Psychoanalytical Concept of Fear and Anxiety. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78349-9_8

Syawal, H., & Helaluddin, H. Psikoanalisis Sigmund Freud Dan Implikasinya Dalam Pendidikan. uin Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin Banten· Fakultas Ekonomi Dan Bisnis Islam, vol. 2. 2018. https://osf.io/582tk/download

Trudeau, D. Mourning and Melancholia: Freud’s Thoughts on Loss. Depth Counseling, May 1, 2020. https://depthcounseling.org/blog/mourning-and-melancholia

UCL Staff. On learning from loss: Rereading ‘Mourning and Melancholia.’ In UCL. University College London, 2020. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/psychoanalysis/learning-loss-rereading-mourning-and-melancholia

Yimer, D. M. On the Interaction Between Literature and Psychology. IEEE SEM, vol. 7, no. 8, 2019. https://www.ieeesem.com/researchpaper/On_the_Interaction_Between_Literature_and_Psychology.pdf


Full Text: PDF

DOI: 10.15408/mel.v3i2.30035

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.