IDENTITY, SOCIAL NORMS AND TRAUMA IN LOUISE O’NEILL’S ASKING FOR IT

This article investigates identity, social norms and trauma in Louise O’Neill’s Asking For It (2016), arguing that the novel exposes the cultural and institutional mechanisms through which femininity is constructed and controlled. Drawing on Castoriadis’s theory of the social imaginary, Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence, Foucault’s analysis of power and discourse, and Caruth’s trauma theory, the study explores how Emma O’Donovan’s identity is shaped by social expectations that privilege appearance, sexual desirability, and conformity over individual agency. Castoriadis’s concept of the social imaginary reveals how culturally produced ideals of femininity and respectability structure Emma’s understanding of herself and others; whereas, Bourdieu’s theory demonstrates how patriarchal values are internalized and perceived as natural social dispositions, while Foucault’s account of surveillance, normalization, and disciplinary power further shows how social norms and institutions adjust female body and behaviour. The article claims that O’Neill’s novel situates trauma within the context of sexual violence while foregrounding the symbolic and discursive structures that deepen its psychological effects. Through the main character’s fractured sense of self and the struggle to reclaim her voice, the book Asking For It questions the narratives that regulate female identity and sustain gendered violence. In conclusion, Louise O’Neill’s YA novel reveals the profound consequences of a social order in which femininity is shaped through imposed ideals of beauty and respectability, while female testimony is challenged.