Monsters, Magnates, and Maims: Reading #MeToo Trauma Narratives in Dizz Tate’s Brutes (2023)

Abstract

Dizz Tate’s Brutes (2023) commences with an ominous “Where is she?”, which reverberates in a narrative haunted by the disappearance of fourteen-year-old Sammy. Noticeably informed by the testimonies that survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s Palm Springs underage exploitation pyramid (2001-2006) offered during #MeToo, Tate explores the pervasiveness of sexual trauma in the lives of the protagonists. She paints a vivid portrait of a contemporary Florida, parallelly haunted by a lake monster and the ominous presence of showbusiness magnate Stone. Through a close reading based on the affects derived from sexual trauma—namely guilt, shame, and pain—this paper intends to frame this novel as part of the growing literary corpus to be forwarded by the affective forces of #MeToo. It will specifically focus on the notions of disruption, breakage, and disappearance of the self as trauma response, as conceptualized by trauma theorists Cathy Caruth, Judith Herman, and Anne Whitehead; and on the manifestation of trauma through the monstruous and the uncanny, informed by Laurie Vickroy’s theory.