Creating a Safe Space on Paper: How Rupi Kaur Empowers Victims of Sexual Violence Through Her Poetry

Abstract

My thesis deals with trauma resulting from any kind of sexual violence and whether Rupi Kaur's poetry has any beneficial effect on these survivors. In the first chapter I explore the theory behind trauma and sexual violence. In the second and third chapters I analyze a total of six poems by Kaur and examine them from a psychological point of view. I draw upon the works of scholars such as Ruth Leys, Christa Schönfelder and Robert Carroll to support my claims. Through the close reading of the poems and with the help of already existing research, in my thesis I argue that Rupi Kaur's poems can have positive effects on survivors of sexual violence.