Narrating trauma in Takahashi Takako's 'Sora no hate made': perverse motherhood

Journal article

This paper examines Takahashi Takako’s Sora no hate made (To the far reaches of the skies, 1973) as a piece of trauma fiction, and argues that childbirth, motherhood and infanticide are portrayed as traumatic events in the narrative. Drawing on the work of trauma theorists such as Dominick LaCapra, Sigmund Freud and Pierre Janet, it suggests that the text performs what LaCapra refers to as ‘working through’ as a mechanism for coming to terms with traumatic memory both thematically and in terms of its narrative structure. In doing so, Sora no hate made raises critical questions regarding the nature of traumatic recall, testimony, and indeed of history itself.

Authors: Flores, L

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Australian National University Press
• Journal: Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific
• Issue: 40
• Publication date: 2017-01-31
• Acceptance date: 2015-07-22
• ISSN: 1440-9151
• Keywords: Cathy Caruth; motherhood; Sora no hate made; trauma; narration; Sigmund Freud; Pierre Janet; SBTMR; Dominick La Capra; kidnapping; 'working through’; Takahashi Takako; memory; infanticide