The Myth of ‘Wound’ Writing: The Multiple Surfaces of Jessica Au’s Cold Enough for Snow

Abstract

ABSTRACT The idea of writing from the wound is a pervasive concept in the discourse of writing, yet the relationship between language and trauma is a contradictory one. Writing ‘from’ the wound suggests a causal relationship between traumatic encounter and the writing, which fails to fully account for the symbolic rupture. Yet, the relationship between writing and wound can be seen more productively as involving a movement away from the wound instead of towards it. This process is enacted in Cold Enough for Snow, a work of autobiographical fiction, in which the narrator hints towards certain structural traumas, without describing those wounds. Instead, Cold Enough for Snow through its focus on surface descriptions, the preference for metonymy over metaphor, the coming together of different time strands, creates a veneer-like surface that gestures towards wounds. The novel moves the narrator away from a state of disconnection, towards a reconnection with the mother and others, following an intense period of reflection. In this way, the idea of wound writing can be seen in Cold Enough for Snow as a movement towards healing. The directionality of this movement is crucial to writers seeking to avoid traumatic repetition in their writing.