The Aftermath of Sexual Violence: Recovering the Narrative of the Post-Traumatic Self in Myriam Gurba’s Mean (2017)

Abstract

[EN] This chapter examines the universal nature of violence against women and the culture that normalizes this violence as portrayed by Myriam Gurba in her memoir Mean (2017). Gurba excavates two women’s stories and their exposure to gendered violence within this aforementioned culture while probing into the multifaceted forms of violence (namely direct, systemic and symbolic), and how they are reproduced in the everyday lives of women. The writer explores gender as the trigger to power imbalances and denounces rape as the ultimate representation of excess of power exercised by men. Gurba presents this three-stage exploration through the disruption of her narrative, a disruption that is achieved through instances of violence, and the probing into of her post-traumatic mind. As a result, the writer exemplifies the consequences of being sexually assaulted, institutionally silenced, and the experience of survivor guilt. Eventually, this chapter argues that Mean serves as a way of presenting not only Gurba’s own testimony.