Child character, sexual trauma and postmodern realities in Toni Kan's nights of the creaking bed

Abstract

This paper critiques the interface between child character and sexual trauma in Toni Kan’s Night of a Creaking Bed. The book, which is a collection of short stories, accentuates sexual realities of child characters in a postmodern African milieu. The depiction of abrasive sexual reactions in these stories defies sex as morally exclusive, as practised in pre-colonial and early modern African societies. The aim of this paper is foregrounded in sexual trauma and its effects on child characters in short stories that appraise postmodern Nigerian society. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis serves as theoretical base for this paper, with pinpoint focus on Jean Laplanche’s theory of general seduction. Using the qualitative research as methodology, this research examines five selected short stories in Toni Kan’s collection, which captures postmodernist version of sexual realities experienced by child characters. This paper therefore pontificates on societal intricacies and consequences of sexually traumatised child characters, within the purview of Nigerian environs, as a result of (direct or indirect) exposure to sex and/or sex related activities at a tender age.