Traumatic Doubling: A Psychoanalytic Reading of Katurian and Michal in Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman

The Pillowman (2003) by McDonagh is a dark comedy that resonates with contemporary canons where narrative is enfolded by trauma and narrative is enfolded by violence. This article reads the text through a psychoanalytic angle by arguing that trauma of childhood and hidden and repressed desire haunt the heroes of drama. Centering on Katurian, Michal, Ariel, and Tupolski, the close reading is informed by Freud’s theory of repression, the death drive, and the repetition compulsion, and by Lacanian concepts of desire and the symbolic order. The analysis reveals the literary profession as vehicle and screen for mourned and reburied trauma. This article offers a new reading against the critical grain of The Pillowman and is an original addition to emerging literary studies of trauma, narrative and mind.