Review article
(AS IF) I AM NOT THERE? RAPE AS A LITERARY AND DOCUMENTARY THEME
Josipa Korljan
orcid.org/0009-0007-2493-7438
; Odsjek za kroatistiku Filozofskog fakulteta u Splitu, Split, Hrvatska
Abstract
This paper analyses the narrative structure of dealing with the trauma of rape as a means of committing genocide as in Breaking the Wall of Silence (Pred zidom šutnje) by Seada Vranić and the novel As If I Am Not There (Kao da me nema) by Slavenka Drakulić. The common task of art/literature and history/documentary is to initiate, with the help of psychoanalysis, a long and painful process of "going through” the trauma of the victims, which is what these two works are trying to do. It is analyzed how in terms of psychoanalysis trauma is dealt with in two different discourses; the ambivalent position is examined between not being and as if not being within the gradual disintegration of both personal and collective identities caused by trauma; an answer to the question of the specifics of women’s testimony in both discourses is sought, with special attention given to the theme of falling in love and masking oneself, which is present in the literary text. La Capra emphasizes the importance of going through the trauma and reliving it as a way of healing; Dori Laub points out the imperative of the interview; talking in psychoanalysis is what narration in literature is, which leads us to Cathy Caruth's claim that literature and psychoanalysis overlap. Guided by these theoretical assumptions, the article moves on to explore how living on after having experienced trauma is dealt with in these two works and what the role of society and culture is in processing trauma.
Keywords
trauma; rape, psychoanalysis; specifics of women’s testimony; masking motif; trauma processing
Hrčak ID:
79389
URI
Publication date:
8.3.2012.
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