Revisiting Sexuality and Trauma: An Analysis of Tom Hooper’s film, The Danish Girl

Abstract

Trauma can be defined as any event or experience that is extremely perturbing and deeply distressful; leaving the sufferer completely devastated both mentally and emotionally. Trauma is a wound of the mind that lingers throughout the life of the victim who experiences the traumatic events. Cathy Caruth in her groundbreaking works of Trauma Studies discusses how literature can act as a window to the traumatic events and experiences. Those people who decide to go through gender transformation have also become the victim of wounded experience by some catastrophic events happening around them. The 'society' considered them schizophrenic and confused in terms of their responsibilities and performances. They have to perform themselves being 'normal' in order to sustain themselves in society. Repression of their feelings and suffering from identity crises often end up by giving them an incurable wound. Here, in The Danish Girl, though the emphasis is given upon the sufferings and traumatic experience of Einer in the process of becoming Lili but, Greda, who constantly being together with Einer also went through the same kind of traumatic experience.