https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i4.060
The Elasticity of Suffering: Narrative Velocity and the Temporal Reset as a Cure for Trauma in Emma Donoghue’s The Wonder
RUCHI PANDEY
Research Scholar
Department of English and Modern European Languages, University of Lucknow
Email: ruchipandey.lu@gmail.com
Abstract: This paper examines the role of narrative temporality as the fundamental structural engine for generating suspense and showing psychological angle in The Wonder (2016), which is a neo-Victorian novel written by Emma Donoghue. The setting is post-Famine Ireland. The narrative details a strict fourteen-day medical watch over Anna O’Donnell. She is a young “fasting girl” whose self-starvation triggers a serious community crisis. This crisis is rooted in deep-seated, repressed trauma. Drawing upon Gerard Genette’s theories of narratological duration, Cathy Caruth’s frameworks of trauma studies, and Reinhart Koselleck’s concept of crisis time, this study analyses how Donoghue systematically mold the velocity of her prose. The paper investigates that how dilated time expands upon the immediate present to construct a claustrophobic suspense. It also shows that how fragmented time replicates chronological ruptures to mirror the psychological haunting of unresolved grief. Also how compressed time accelerates pacing during the climax to depict a structural panic.
Keywords: Irish Fiction, Narrative Temporality, Trauma Studies, Suspense, Crisis Theory
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