Abstract
M.A. (English)
Yann Martel’s Life of Pi takes as its focal point a deeply traumatic event that befalls its main protagonist, Pi Patel. One effect of Pi’s traumatic experience is that it hinders his ability fully to communicate the scope and detail of his suffering. This dissertation seeks to show how, through a deftly woven, framed narrative, the use of the mode of the fantastic and an ambiguous allegory, the novel works creatively to confront the difficulties inherent in the representation of Pi’s trauma. The central tenets of trauma theory offer illuminating perspectives from which to examine the manifestation of trauma in this novel. The framed narrative, when considered within the context of Jacques Derrida’s description of the performance of the frame in The Truth in Painting, is a performance that suggests possibilities for the figurative representation of Pi’s trauma. The framed narrative engenders a profound sense of ambiguity within the text, which is necessary for the fantastic to function. The fantastic, in this novel, resonates with the experience of trauma and displays significant potential in the saying of the unsaid. Ambiguity also permeates the double narrative presented toward the close of the narrative. The double narrative is an allegory, but not a straightforward one and its unorthodox implementation is best understood in the context of the deconstructive possibilities of allegory as delineated by Paul de Man.