Fanficforum Frankfurt

Cathy Caruth. “The Wound and the Voice.”

• an introduction to analysing trauma narratives in literature
• The crying wound is used as a key metaphor for trauma: the wound has a voice, and to listen to it is to recognise it.
• The wound caused by the trauma is only recognised when the situation is relived: trauma is described as a wound that has not been processed.
• Trauma is presented as an experience that is difficult to describe for the victim.
• Literature can show trauma in different and unique ways with different stylistic devices.

NieR Replicant fanfic

• The fanfic describes an intimate scene between Nier, who has been sexually abused, and Kainé, who suffers from gender dysphoria.
• It is written in verse and as an inner monologue from Kainé’s POV.
• Poetry can help expressing trauma and emotions in pictures: it can be vague, abstract, and produce many different readings.
• The fanfic switches between first person and third person perspective and thus creates distance: the body acts as a border; the “escape” from the body depicts Kainé’s body dysphoria.
• The style creates different stages of closeness and distance between the characters but also between the reader and the characters.
• This is achieved by adopting Kainé’s use of swear words and by the disjointed character of the stream of consciousness.
• The fanfic’s vagueness and singular POV offers the option for different readings of the relationship between the two characters, like violence and manipulation, gratitude and dependence, etc.
• Is trauma used as a plot device for the romance, or does the trauma stand in between the characters?
• The fanfic reproduces the common narratives of easy healing/intimacy as a cure: problems are solved by talking and, inevitably, sex.