Volume 5, Issue 2 (June 2026)
IJER 2026, 5(2): 0-0 |
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Lohrasbi M, Sokhanvar J, Yaghoobi Derabi J. (2026). Unveiling the Unseen: Objective Violence and Its Silent Presence in Auster’s Sunset Park. IJER. 5(2),
URL: http://ijer.hormozgan.ac.ir/article-1-521-en.html
URL: http://ijer.hormozgan.ac.ir/article-1-521-en.html
1- Department of English Language and Literature, SR.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2- Department of English Language and Literature, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran ,nakhoslaej@gmail.com
3- Department of English Language and Literature, Ka.C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
2- Department of English Language and Literature, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran ,
3- Department of English Language and Literature, Ka.C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
Abstract: (81 Views)
Objective: This study examines Paul Auster’s Sunset Park (2010) as a literary space in which violence is rendered ambiguous and largely invisible. Drawing on Slavoj Žižek’s concept of “objective violence,” the research aims to uncover how systemic, ideological forms of violence embedded in capitalism operate beneath the surface of everyday life and how the novel’s characters are exposed to and respond to these forces.
Methods: Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the study employs close textual analysis informed by Žižek’s theoretical framework of objective violence. This concept is used to analyze the structural and ideological dimensions of violence in Sunset Park, focusing on capitalism’s social, economic, and cultural mechanisms and their effects on individual subjectivities.
Results: The analysis reveals that objective violence in the novel functions silently and pervasively, shaping the characters’ lives through inequality, precarity, and marginalization. The characters’ responses to this violence are diverse and contingent upon their social positions and personal perspectives. While some attempt to resist or negotiate these oppressive structures, others remain constrained or entrapped by them, often without fully recognizing the source of their suffering.
Conclusions: The study argues that Auster’s narrative compels readers to actively engage in uncovering the hidden layers of objective violence that permeate contemporary capitalist society. Recognizing and addressing this silent form of violence is essential for understanding trauma, suffering, and social fragmentation in contemporary American life, as represented in Sunset Park.
Methods: Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the study employs close textual analysis informed by Žižek’s theoretical framework of objective violence. This concept is used to analyze the structural and ideological dimensions of violence in Sunset Park, focusing on capitalism’s social, economic, and cultural mechanisms and their effects on individual subjectivities.
Results: The analysis reveals that objective violence in the novel functions silently and pervasively, shaping the characters’ lives through inequality, precarity, and marginalization. The characters’ responses to this violence are diverse and contingent upon their social positions and personal perspectives. While some attempt to resist or negotiate these oppressive structures, others remain constrained or entrapped by them, often without fully recognizing the source of their suffering.
Conclusions: The study argues that Auster’s narrative compels readers to actively engage in uncovering the hidden layers of objective violence that permeate contemporary capitalist society. Recognizing and addressing this silent form of violence is essential for understanding trauma, suffering, and social fragmentation in contemporary American life, as represented in Sunset Park.
Keywords: Objective Violence, Capitalism, Sunset Park, Symbolic Violence, Systemic Violence, Slavoj Žižek
Type of Study: Original |
Subject:
Educational Psychology
Received: 2025/08/12 | Accepted: 2025/11/18 | Published: 2026/06/1
Received: 2025/08/12 | Accepted: 2025/11/18 | Published: 2026/06/1
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