Loquēla
Vol. 4 No. 2 (2026): Loquēla (Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Education): In Progress

Narrative Transmission and Gender Trauma in Broken Strings by Aurelie Moereman

Wiwinda Lestari (Universitas Bangka Belitung)
M Afifulloh (Universitas Bangka Belitung)
Diana Anggraeni (Universitas Bangka Belitung)



Article Info

Publish Date
02 Sep 2026

Abstract

Sexual violence against adolescent girls is an ongoing human rights issue. Survivors' memoirs, published digitally, are shaping public discourse on grooming and gender-based violence in Indonesia. However, Aurelie Moeremans's work, Broken Strings: Fragments of a Stolen Youth (2025), has not yet received in-depth, sustained literary analysis. This article examines how gender-based violence is constructed and conveyed through narrative strategies in the memoir. The article focuses on the protagonist’s subordination within heteronormative power relations and the text’s function as an affective medium that facilitates affiliative reader engagement. Combining Judith Butler’s concept of gender performativity and Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory, this study uses a descriptive-interpretive qualitative approach. It also employs a close reading of the memoir and secondary reception materials from Indonesian feminist media. The analysis reveals three interconnected dimensions: the normalization of gender-based compliance and romanticization as mechanisms of coercive control, a transition from silenced to reflective subjectivity, and narrative fragmentation, retrospection, and direct address that transform personal trauma into shared meaning. Conclusion: This memoir serves a dual function: it is both a testimony and a discursive space in which gender-based violence is critically articulated in digital form. Additionally, it fills a gap in academic research on digital memoirs by survivors in Indonesia by combining the Butler-Hirsch framework.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

Loquela

Publisher

Subject

Humanities Education Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media Social Sciences

Description

Loquēla (Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Education) is an Open Access journal that aims to publish research outcomes with significant contributions to Linguistics, Literature, Education, and their influences on social transformations. Loquēla does not collect only research outcomes from ...