Commodification of Traumatic Voice: Exploration of Communicative Injustice in Emma Donoghue’s Room

Abstract

Mass media is an indispensable part of modern society. It plays a crucial role for
raped victims to speak about their experiences through interviews and talk shows. But, this is
not free from danger as the media commodifies their traumatic narratives by interpreting as
per its wish for business profit. This disempowering tendency of media gives birth to
communicative injustice. In Emma Donoghue’s Room (2010), after being rescued from seven
years of her rapist’s captivity, Ma, the main character, becomes the victim of communicative
injustice when her motherhood is interpreted as faulty in an interview. Her decision to keep
Jack, her son, with her instead of giving him up for adoption is viewed as selfish. The
interview re-traumatises her, and as a consequence, she attempts suicide. She fails to
communicate her motherly feelings to the media. Through the textual analysis of Room, this
article discusses the negative impact of media on Ma and her child by using the concept of
communicative injustice explored by Jilly Boyce Kay in the book Gender, Media and Voice:
Communicative Injustice and Public Speech (2020).
Keywords: media, rape, communicative injustice