Confession and Catharsis: Trauma Disclosure in Colleen Hoover’s Selected Novels

In an age of psychological sensitivity and global transformation, the need to explore the fundamental question of traumatic wounds and recovery grows ever more, demanding the imperative of medical and literary studies to inspect the causes and consequences of traumatic injuries and psychological growth. Hence, this thesis investigates such a quest and argues against the silence of traumatic affliction, demonstrating that trauma constitutes a wound that demands expression. Such expression emerges through multiple narrative forms, including anonymous confession, artistic representation, verbal poetic disclosure, and autobiographical engagement with past and present experience. This study draws extensively on the theoretical contributions of trauma study experts such as Judith Herman, Bessel van der Kolk, Dori Laub, and James Pennebaker, who explore the narrative dimensions of trauma and the complex relationship between traumatic experience, memory, and expression in selected novels by Colleen Hoover. Findings showed redemptive and therapeutic potential for sharing traumatic experiences with others whose traumatic pasts are equally troubling yet different in nature. In finding empathetic and supportive others, the characters in Hoover’s novels were able to experience a psychological transformation and empowerment that drove them to alter the grand narrative of their lives and reauthor them. Thus, this study implies that by putting one’s pain and fears into a narrative structure, traumatized individuals are then able to find reconciliation and discover alternative and more productive life narratives, which facilitate healing and encourage recovery.