Fractured Reflections: Gender Performativity and Traumatic Memory in Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye

K Selvi Karunanithi; K Prem Kumar

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i05.58715

Fractured Reflections: Gender Performativity and Traumatic Memory in Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye

Author(s)	Ms. K Selvi Karunanithi, Dr. K Prem Kumar
Country	India
Abstract	Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye is a layered narrative that portrays the psychic scars of girlhood through fragmented memories and the lingering echoes of trauma. This paper explores how Atwood merges personal memory and collective gendered experience to question the very nature of identity and power. The research identifies a critical gap in Atwood scholarship, where trauma and gender have often been examined separately. Drawing on Cathy Caruth’s notion of trauma as an “unclaimed experience” and Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, the paper argues that Elaine’s fragmented selfhood arises from the intersection of embodied trauma and performative gender roles. Through close textual analysis, the paper examines how Elaine’s memories of childhood cruelty return as vivid, embodied flashbacks that shape her adult subjectivity. The study also situates her trauma within the collective social matrix of internalized misogyny, where femininity becomes a performance enforced by other women. The methodology involves a theoretical synthesis of trauma studies and feminist thought, engaging particularly with post-feminist and decolonizing readings of trauma. Ultimately, the paper contends that Cat’s Eye not only represents the psychic wounds of girlhood but also reframes trauma as a site of potential self-reclamation and ethical testimony.
Keywords	Trauma Studies, Cathy Caruth, Gender Performativity, Judith Butler, Embodied Memory, Internalized Misogyny, Female Relationality, Ethical Testimony
Field	Arts
Published In	Volume 7, Issue 5, September-October 2025
Published On	2025-10-25
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i05.58715

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Fractured Reflections: Gender Performativity and Traumatic Memory in Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye

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