A study into the narrative techniques used to convey non-physical childhood sexual abuse and trauma in contemporary Western fiction

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

By exploring the techniques used by authors of fiction to convey and represent the variant forms of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), my research aims to provide fresh literary and feminist insight into experiences that are not commonly represented in Western literature and understanding: abuse that does not include or involve unwanted touching, but which instead consists of exposure and harassment. In exploring these forms of CSA, I will advance current discussions within the trauma canon of feminist theory, and further develop trauma language frameworks pioneered by theorists such as Cathy Caruth.To achieve this aim, I will conduct a comparative analysis between texts that explore childhood or adolescent sexual violence - such as those by Sapphire, Roxane Gay, Emma Glass, Rebecca Watson and Edward St Aubyn - and feminist discourse and psychoanalysis, to seek out methods for use in my own writing, with a particular focus on the role of memory in realising trauma. My project will focus on these strands: a) memory creating trauma; b) mirroring trauma; and c) the language of trauma.