Communicative Interaction in Zoe Heller’s Novels What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal and The Believers
Communicative Interaction in Zoe Heller’s Novels What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal and The Believers

Summary/Abstract: Notwithstanding the fact that relationship context undergoes changes, communication always plays the pivotal role in human interaction. The quality of this interaction is reflected in literature, in particular, through communication patterns demonstrated by characters. Zoe Heller’s What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal (2003) and The Believers (2008) provide an insight into the communication patterns predominating in contemporary societies. This paper examines the root of violence in communication and the research reveals that the characters in the above-mentioned novels resort to violent communication, chiefly, as a result of traumatic experiences. Notably, violent communication is not always explicit and is not always directed towards somebody, a person frequently applies it in relation to himself / herself. The non-violent communication theory advanced by M. Rosenberg’s and F. Ruppert’s in their theory of identity-oriented psychotrauma is employed to interpret the characters’ speech and behavior. The present paper is intended to identify text fragments with the violent and non-violent communication used by the characters in various situations. The novels expertly dissect the challenge of developing mutual understanding in surroundings that are dysfunctional because of issues of communication. The analysis of these fragments shows the value of experiential crossing in raising awareness of life-alienating language at a personal as well as societal level. It also brings to light that the patterning process, which characterizes communicative interaction, is typical of ideology production. On a global scale, this means that traumatizing a person’s inner and outer worlds is exacerbated by repetitive destructive patterns.

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