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Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak: The Effects of Rape Trauma and the
Construction of the Recovery Narrative
Article in Koya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences · July 2020
DOI: 10.14500/kujhss.v3n1y2020.pp81-87
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, Koya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (KUJHSS) 81
Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak:
The Effects of Rape Trauma and the
Construction of the Recovery Narrative
Arsto Nasir Ahmed1 Rebwar Zainalddin Mohammed2
1 Department of English Language, College of Languages, University of Sulaimani, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
2 Department of Translation, College of Languages, University of Sulaimani, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
2 V. P. For Scientific Affairs and Postgraduate Studies, Cihan University Sulaimani, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
______________________________________________________________________________________
ABSTRACT
Speak (1999) is Laurie Halse Anderson’s first novel that calls attention to a critical, social issue that is common to
girls entering teenagehood in the United States. The novel tells the specific story of the rape and subsequent selective
silence of a ninth-grade protagonist named Melinda Sordino. Since the novel’s focus is on sexual violence and its
associated traumatic responses, this paper offers an analysis of the novel through contemporary trauma theory. It
presents Melinda’s painful narrative by depicting the impairment that the rape trauma causes in her behaviour,
attitudes, thinking, interactions, and her overall well-being. In addition to exposing the adverse psychological effects
on the victim, it scrutinises the tools she employs during her journey towards healing or recovery. This is done
through demonstrating how Melinda’s resilience in the face of traumatic experience, reconciliation with her
miserable situation, and acts of resistance to be changed by this experience can be read in the context of recovery
rather than of madness and illness, as the traditional trauma theories could possibly suggest. Reading the novel
through the lens of contemporary trauma theory makes one realise that Anderson’s work fulfils the goal of
empowering survivors of rape, and it thus contributes to the recovery of those individuals who have undergone
sexual violence at some point in their lives.
KEY WORDS: PTSD, Rape, Reconciliation, Recovery Resilience, Resistance, Sexual Violence.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Packard (2018, p.2) calls Speak “a five-star book . . . with
1. INTRODUCTION an absolutely stunning look at the importance of finding
voice in the face of adversity and challenges”. As a New
Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak is one of her
York Times Best Seller, it has received much scholarly
landmark works of fiction originally published in 1999.
attention in the past two decades (Alsup, 2003; O’Quinn,
Constructed as a story of suffering, the novel portrays a
2001; Latham, 2006; Tannert-Smith, 2010; Park, 2012,
gloomy vision of the social environment in which the
Malo-Juvera, 2014; Hubler, 2017). For example, young
protagonist lives, and this has attracted the attention of
adult literature scholar Alsup (2003, p.165) argues that
the readers. After its publication, Speak immediately hit
Speak is not a traditional "rape story" that can be easily
the shelves and became very appealing. In her review,
ignored as boring, clichéd and a story that the reader has
“heard before”. In her opinion, readers are compelled to
__________ ________________________________________________
Koya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences pay attention to this novel because of its unconventional
(KUJHSS). form of narrative—including lists, bulleted points,
Volume 3, Issue 1, 2020. “script-style dialogue introduced by names followed by
Received 25 September 2019; Accepted 12 April 2019, colons,” and multiple headings—which symbolically
Regular research paper: Published 23 June 2020 represents Melinda’s inability to speak about what
Corresponding author’s e-mail: arsto.ahmed@univsul.edu.iq happened to her in a conventional way (p.165). This
Copyright ©2020 Asst. Lect. Arsto N. Ahmed & Asst. Prof. Dr. novel is mainly suggested to young adult readers due to
Rebwar Z. Mohammed. This is an open access article
distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
Original Article |DOI: https://doi.org/10.14500/kujhss.v3n1y2020.pp81-87
