Statutory Rape Victimisation: A Psychoanalytical Study of Kate Elizabeth Russell’s My Dark Vanessa

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the aspects of a statutory rape victimisation in Kate Elizabeth Russell’s novel My Dark Vanessa through Freudian psychoanalytical aspects of id, ego, superego, conscious mind, unconscious mind, and trauma. It seeks to consider the mechanism behind the projection of desires and emotions involving the statutory rape victimisation in order to highlight its impact. It tends to emphasise the ways through which an ephebophile, the antagonist of the novel, controls the whole narrative of the statutory rape by being in a power position and his role in manipulating a victim’s perception of trauma-tied reality in My Dark Vanessa. The ephebophile’s psyche plays a significant role in fulfilling his unusual desires. His urges originate from the unconscious mind; however, it is the conscious mind that becomes a source of gratification of his desires. As far as the victim, the protagonist of the novel, is concerned, she defends her abuser for her own survival from the abuse-associated trauma. Yet, her failed defence guided by the unconscious mind, leads to the revelation of traumatic symptoms. However, through free association with the help of a therapist, she then succeeds in liberating herself from the trauma that has been buried in her unconscious mind all those years. Thus, this study analyses the actions and consequences concerning the statutory rape victimisation on both the victim and ephebophile in Russell's My Dark Vanessa by using Freudian psychoanalytical theory.