“Way Beyond-The-Pale”: Anna Burns’ Milkman аs а Gendered Trauma Narrative
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18485/kis.2022.54.178.13Keywords:
Northern Ireland, gender, trauma, sexual harassment, Anna Burns, counter-narrative, herstoryAbstract
Informed by trauma theorists, including Cathy Caruth and Laurie Vickroy, this paper interrogates how the 2018 novel Milkman by Anna Burns, set in the polarized and violent context of Northern Ireland and the 1970s Troubles, portrays the gendered trauma experience and its counter-discursive dimension. This paper aims to bring together two strands of interpretation which situate the novelistic discourse in its historical and socio-political context, while investigating the textual strategies employed by the protagonist who doubles as narrator, as she seeks coping mechanisms amid terrorist retaliation, sexual abuse, objectification, and social exclusion due to tribalism. The present study establishes that the structure of traumatic experiences, the victim/survivor response to them and the resulting resistance signify a type of counter-narrative against the dominant political and social forces which traumatize the heroine, whose destiny and narrative style highlight the position of disempowered members in any society.
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