Child Abuse and Self-abjection in Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects
Child Abuse and Self-abjection in Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects

Summary/Abstract: Flynn’s Sharp Objects is filled with images of abject brutality toward children such as teeth-pulling, strangulation, rape and child poisoning. This study investigates the notion of child abuse in this novel in light of Kristeva’s notion of maternal abjection. Examining the acts of deviant behavior such as self-cutting, self-objectification and child murder in the novels indicates the female characters’ entrapment in a state of pathological dependence on the mother. This sense of attachment blocks out the subject’s healthy passage into adulthood and leads to the splitting off of the identity. Using Kriteva’s views regarding the different stages of child development, it will be argued that, in Sharp Objects, the female characters’ criminal behaviour, in-between-ness and the resultant identity crisis reflect their symbiotic attachment to the mother.

• Details
• Contents