The Influence of “Raped Consciousness” on the Philosophy of Mind in Postcolonial Women’s Literature: Rejection of Corporeality in Literary Reception

Abstract

In this article, we investigated the fragmentation of the philosophy of the creative mind, which manifests itself through the postcolonial rejection by women of their own bodies and needs, using materials drawn from women’s short prose. The authors of the article used predominantly interdisciplinary methods, the main ones being neurocultural, psychoanalytic, and literary (narratological) analysis. Using literary-philosophical, narratological, and reflexive methods, the authors examined feminist manifestations of postcolonialism in Ukraine, which deprive women of their bodily-erotic identity and lead to a loss of identity, the confrontation of two cultures, and the destruction of the connection with their own cultural heritage. We also demonstrated that such alienation develops into a personal and broader human tragedy in a postcolonial/post-totalitarian world, where loneliness becomes an existential threat. The main conclusions address the neuropsychological context of the fragmented postcolonial mind and its destructive consequences. These include aversion to otherness, sexual dysphoria, and alternative manifestations of primal or sublimated sexuality resulting from the prolonged alienation of female corporeality. The latter leads to a philosophy of the fragmented creative mind, accompanied by ambivalent daily reflections and processes of self-formation. Finally, the article summarises the multimodality of the “Soviet trauma of corporeality” and outlines therapeutic directions for addressing “raped” and fragmented consciousness. These involve intersubjectivity, subjectivation, the restoration of boundaries, and the ethical acceptance of corporeality. The article also presents a conceptual map integrating the proposed understanding of the problem.