A Psychoanalytic Study of the Novel The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Abstract

The aim of this research is to perform a psychoanalytic analysis of Pat Barker's, The Silence of the Girls, with an emphasis on how the novel depicts trauma, silence, and the feminine experience. It also aims to study lack and desire as well as frustrated behavior of female characters of the novel. Specifically, via the lens of Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory, the study aims to reveal how Barker's story challenges and subverts the patriarchal framework of Homer's Iliad by providing voice to the hitherto silenced female characters. Recounted from the viewpoint of Briseis, a Trojan princess who becomes Achilles' concubine, The Silence of the Girls is a version of Homer's Iliad. The book addresses themes of trauma and silence by reorienting the narrative from the normally male-dominated story to the experiences of women. This study uses a close reading of the book to examine the protagonist's journey. Using Lacan's theories of the Symbolic, the Real, and the Mirror Stage, the study investigates how silence in the story serves as a coping strategy for trauma as well as a means of resistance against patriarchal tyranny. The analysis shows that by giving voice to oppressed female characters, Barker's story successfully subverts the patriarchal rhetoric of the original epic. It illustrates how silence in the book is a calculated form of defiance against patriarchal systems that aim to silence the feminine voice, as well as a sign of trauma. This study advances our knowledge of how trauma, silence, and gender interact in modern literature, advancing both Barker's research and Lacanian psychoanalytic studies.