Memory, Silence, and Queer Inheritance in Yael van der Wouden’s The Safekeep: A Trauma and Queer Theory Reading

Abstract

This research investigates the representation of trauma and queerness in the literary work by Yael van der Wouden called The Safekeep from the standpoint of the interaction between trauma and queer theory, focusing on the connection between memory, silence, and queer inheritance. Using the qualitative interpretive approach, the current study aims at revealing how the novel as a literary work about post-war memory uses fragmentation, domestic spaces, objects, and delay as key mechanisms of its operation. It is assumed that the notion of silence can be interpreted as a mediator between trauma and queerness because, on the one hand, silence works as a means of repression and covers up violent history, secrets of a family, and memories, while, on the other hand, silence is seen as a tool for queer survival which helps queer desire to persist despite social restrictions. Furthermore, it is shown that the novel changes the traditional perception of inheritance since it involves inheritance of affects, guilt, silence, dispossession, and queer recognition. In this regard, the concept of queer traumatic inheritance is suggested, according to which queer desire is used as a means to uncover history and restructure it.