The Wounded Soul: Representation of Trauma in Reza Zangiabadi's Novel Khūn Khargūš (Rabbit's Blood)

Kanani, Ebrahim; Javanbakht, Zahra

doi:10.30465/lir.2025.52461.2039

The Wounded Soul: Representation of Trauma in Reza Zangiabadi's Novel Khūn Khargūš (Rabbit's Blood)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Ebrahim Kanani ¹

Zahra javanbakht ²

¹ Associate Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Kosar University of Bojnord, Bojnord, Iran;

² Master's student of Narrative Literature, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Kosar University of Bojnord, Bojnord, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.30465/lir.2025.52461.2039

Abstract

Trauma is an experience beyond the capacity of language to represent and occurs when a traumatic event is experienced before conscious understanding. Žižek considers any exposure to a traumatic event to be trauma, and Lacan describes the individual's inability to represent that event as a fact. This research, using a descriptive-analytical method, examines and analyzes trauma in Reza Zangiabadi's story Khūn Khargūš (Rabbit's Blood). The purpose of this research is to psychoanalyze the nature of trauma and how it is represented in the characters of the novel. Fariba, the main character of the story, suffers from deep psychological wounds in the face of violence, poverty, and patriarchal domination, which are reflected in her narration, dialogues, meaningful silences, and stuttering. Fariba is not only a symbol of a damaged individual but also a reflection of repressed femininity in a patriarchal society. The present narrative presents trauma by breaking the timeline, creating a nightmarish atmosphere, and using linguistic techniques. Based on the analysis, Rabbit's Blood is a literary depiction of the psychological wounds that lie in the unconscious layers of the characters and can only emerge through linguistic and narrative failures. This novel is an embodiment of silence and stuttering in the face of violence, poverty, despair, and loneliness; something that falls within the realm of the Lacanian real.

Keywords

Trauma, Khūn Khargū&scaron

, Lacan and Žižek'؛ s theory., reality, symbolic disorder

Subjects