Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

From Captivity to Selfhood: Trauma and Female Subjectivity in Wide Sargasso Sea and Breasts and Eggs

Chuyi WangUniversity College London*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

This paper examines how intimacy, often idealized as trust and reciprocity, can become a site of psychological imprisonment through coercive control in cross-cultural literary narratives. By comparing Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea and Kawakami Mieko’s Breasts and Eggs, the study highlights how intimate relationships generate “chronic violence” that reshapes female subjectivity across colonial and contemporary Japanese contexts. Combining trauma theory with the sociological framework of "coercive control", research shows that intimate oppression not only has cross-cultural universality but also presents unique forms in specific historical and social contexts. While Rhys depicts the destructive resistance expressed under colonial patriarchy, Kawakami demonstrates the possibility of women engaging in strategic subjectivity negotiations through silence, writing, and reproductive choices. This study not only expands the research scope of trauma literature from event-based violence to implicit and persistent psychological domination but also reveals its cross-cultural resonance and intergenerational transmission.

Keywords: Trauma literature; Coercive control; Comparative Literature; Feminist Subjectivity
Published: October 23, 2025
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2025.BJ28476
Volume: CHR Vol.79
pp. 8-19
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