Testimonies of the Unspeakable: Tracing Sexual Violence, PTSD and Invisible Wounds in Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life

Abstract

In recent decades, contemporary fiction has increasingly become a site for bearing witness to forms of violence that defy easy narration. This paper explores how Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life (2015) grapples with the representation of sexual violence, its lingering psychic aftermath and the invisible wounds that shape survivors' lives long after the traumatic event. Drawing on trauma theory, particularly the work of Cathy Caruth, Judith Herman and Shoshana Felman, this study examines how the novel foregrounds the unspeakable dimensions of trauma through narrative voice, temporal disjunction and the interplay of speech and silence. A Little Life follows Jude St. Francis's lifelong struggle with PTSD and self-harm, laying bare the cyclical, non-linear nature of trauma and the ethical stakes of spectatorship. By reading the text in dialogue, this paper argues that the novel resists redemptive arcs and therapeutic resolutions, instead using narrative strategies to preserve trauma's irreducible residue. Ultimately, this study contends that such literature functions as a form of counter-memory, challenging readers to confront their complicity as witnesses and to acknowledge the fragile limits of empathy when encountering the unspeakable. The paper concludes by reflecting on the transformative yet unsettling possibilities of reading trauma narratives in an era of heightened awareness of sexual violence.