Unfinished Words and Silent Endings: Anne Frank’s Diary Through the Lens of Cathy Caruth’s Trauma Theory

Helen Swarna VC; Dr. R. Karunambigai

VOl-10,Issue-4,July - August 2025

Author: Helen Swarna VC, Dr. R. Karunambigai

Keywords: Holocaust Literature, Formation and Narrative Disruption, Identity, Trauma theory and Unprocessed Experience

Abstract: The research explores The Diary of a Young Girl written by Anne Frank through the lens of Cathy Caruth’s trauma theory, as presented in Unclaimed Experiences: Trauma, Narrative and History. Anne Frank, a Holocaust victim known for her posthumously published diary that documents her life in hiding during the World War II. The diary reflects her confinement, emotional turmoil, and psychological evolution under traumatic circumstances. Her writing reveals the difficulty in articulating her traumatic experience, it builds her identity and writing becomes a tool for her to survive. However, the diary ends abruptly with her arrest by the Nazi force, an interruption that mirrors Cathy Caruth’s notion of trauma that states, trauma is neither fully experienced nor resolved in the moment. The study views Anne Frank’s experiences through the lens of Cathy Caruth’s Trauma Theory and analyses how Anne processes her trauma through writing and how her condition represents the trauma of other victims.

Article Info: Received: 19 Jun 2025; Received in revised form: 14 Jul 2025; Accepted: 17 Jul 2025; Available online: 20 Jul 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.104.27