Trauma and Power: A Caruthian–Foucauldian Reading of Jelinek’s Wonderful, Wonderful Times

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

2 PhD Candidate, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Elfriede Jelinek’s Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1980) reconceptualizes trauma as a socio-historical condition which is produced and perpetuated by power–knowledge structures rather than experienced solely as personal or psychological suffering. Drawing on Cathy Caruth’s trauma theory and Michel Foucault’s concept of power–knowledge, this article argues that the novel vividly represents trauma as historically entrenched systems of ideological domination that shape individual and collective identities, cultural narratives and memory. The article offers a profound critique of postwar Austrian society by exposing how the intricate and dynamic interplay of power-knowledge generates the complicated discourse of trauma and foreclose any meaningful narrative recovery. Through a close and comprehensive textual and discourse-oriented analysis, the article demonstrates how the novel's fragmented structure serves as a significant literary critique which mirrors the unrepresentable nature of trauma and its resistance to forming a coherent narrative, while simultaneously exposing the dominant ideological power-knowledge mechanisms through which unresolved traumatic histories are normalized, reproduced and ultimately perpetuated. The novel’s depiction of trauma as a socio-cultural product rather than a private experience clearly demonstrates that individual agency is constrained by power structures.

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References

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  • Receive Date: 27 September 2025
  • Revise Date: 31 January 2026
  • Accept Date: 01 February 2026

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