The Supranarratable and The Antinarratable in Wilkie Collins` Man and Wife

Authors : Muhammed Metin ÇAMELİ

Pages : 1-12

Doi:10.46250/kulturder.1249494

View : 103 | Download : 76

Publication Date : 2023-06-10

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The integration of traumatic events such as sexual abuse, war attacks and other forms of violence into literary narratives has been quite remarkable from ancient times onwards. However, the unfathomable nature of trauma that resists representation becomes manifest as a difficulty to be surmounted in the field of literature at the same time. In other words, the unnarratability of a traumatic experience with the help of a literary genre has been at the heart of multifarious discussions pertaining to the relationship between literature and trauma. It must be stated that the literary period of a work with its peculiar characteristics has been associated with the hardship of articulating trauma as well. Based on this idea, many trauma narratives of Victorian Era can be said to incorporate what remains unnarrated because of stifling social conventions. This is particularly evident in Wilkie Collins’ Man and Wife in which readers view the world through the lenses of a traumatized woman, Hester Dethridge. To clarify, the purpose of this paper is to study the ways in which the selected novel functions as an apt forum of relating the concepts of the supranarratable and the antinarratable to Hester’s case to understand her psychic condition.
Keywords : Wilkie Collins, anlatılabilir üstü, anlatılabilir karşıtı, Viktoryen romanı, travma