Screaming in Silence: Narrative Voice in Latvian Writer Gundega Repše’s Fiction

The contemporary field of narratology delineates narrative voice as a complex effect of formal and pragmatic elements such as the point of view presented, focalization, tone, modality, and the spatiotemporal models of narrative. The intricate nature of narrative voice arises from its reliance on pragmatic parameters through which it articulates the author’s intentions, ideologies, and values. Consequently, the narrative voice reaches into the extratextual realm, assuming the role of a medium for thematization and value judgement. With a focus on the contemporary Latvian writer Gundega Repše’s novels Īkstīte (Thumbelina) (2000) and Alvas Kliedziens (The Tin Scream) (2002), this paper investigates the functions of narrative voice using the framework of feminist narratology and the French feminist theory of écriture féminine (feminine writing). Both novels depict a quest for the integrity of a female autodiegetic narrator and reflect on women’s difference as an agonizing and complex process. In the novel Īkstīte, the self-discovery of the woman protagonist ends in a loss of the subject’s integrity and the disruption of language. Her failed story and the disruption of language that she experiences can be interpreted as essential symptoms of women’s cultural condition, and the novel thereby suggests the importance of solidarity and raising collective awareness about violence against women. In Alvas Kliedziens, the protagonist’s diary unveils the structure of trauma and psychosis in the woman subject as Rugetta struggles against the physical and emotional violence inflicted by the Soviet school, where teachers and learners were involved in a system of surveillance and mutual informing. The dramatic trajectory and tragic denouement of both novels position the integrity of women not merely as a source of alternative cultural and social visions but as a horizon for individual and cultural aspirations.