Means of representation of traumatic experience in trauma fiction and Vladas Kalvaitis’ „Sustiprinto režimo barakas“

Abstract

Trauma fiction is now known as a literary genre. Literary texts on traumatic experience share many techniques and means of representattion of trauma that are considered to be characteristic to the genre of trauma fiction. The article describes some of the most common techniques and means of representation of trauma and tries to discuss whether Vladas Kalvaitis, a Lithuanian poet and writer, uses them in his novel Sustiprinto režimo barakas (2011) to convey traumatic experience in Siberia successfully. The paper comes to a conclusion that thematically Sustiprinto režimo barakas by Vladas Kalvaitis could be seen as a trauma novel. However, the author almost does not employ the literary techniques that are very common in trauma fiction. Probably the author wants to show that the narrator has overcome his trauma, since he tells his story about the events that took place fifty years ago. However, sometimes it seems that not everything is told. In other words, there are gaps in the content of the novel that make the reader wonder whether the narrator has actually come to terms with his traumatic past and is able to speak about it. The inability to speak about traumatic past is typical to trauma narratives.