Representing Silent Trauma in Joan Baez’s Saigon Bride (1967): A Trauma-Theoretical Lyric Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61492/calakan.v4i2.613Keywords:
Silent Trauma, Cathy Caruth, Saigon Bride, Song Lyrics, Trauma TheoryAbstract
This study examines the representation of silent trauma in Joan Baez’s song lyric Saigon Bride (1967) through Cathy Caruth’s trauma theory. This research aims to analyze how silent trauma is constructed through narrative structure, traumatic imagery, and symbolic language, as well as to explain how the concepts of unclaimed experience, belatedness, and the cry of the wound reveal the psychological suffering represented in the lyrics. This study applies a qualitative descriptive method using a close reading approach. The primary data consist of selected lyric excerpts from Saigon Bride, while secondary sources include books and scholarly studies related to trauma theory and literary analysis. The findings reveal that silent trauma is represented indirectly through farewell narratives, images of death and destruction, and symbolic expressions related to separation and uncertainty. Furthermore, Cathy Caruth’s theory demonstrates that the speaker’s trauma emerges as an unresolved experience, delayed psychological suffering, and indirect testimony expressed through repetition and rhetorical questions. This study concludes that Saigon Bride represents war trauma not through explicit emotional expressions but through silence, symbolic language, and restrained narratives that reflect the psychological consequences of war.
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