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Asati, P. and Soumya, T. (2025) Fragmented Narratives and Sudden Harm: A Comprehensive Study of Trauma in Literature and Unintentional Trauma. Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL), 13, 36-41.

has been cited by the following article:

• TITLE: Trauma, Identity, and Agency in Jenni Fagan’s The Panopticon (2012): A Study of Marginalized Youth in Contemporary Literature

  AUTHORS: Aladji Mamadou Sane

  KEYWORDS: Trauma, Marginalization, Identity Construction, Surveillance, Agency, Resilience

  JOURNAL NAME: Open Access Library Journal, Vol.13 No.8, August 12, 2026

  ABSTRACT: This article examines how Jenni Fagan’s The Panopticon portrays the traumatic experiences of marginalized youth subjected to institutional surveillance and social exclusion. Drawing on trauma theory, Foucauldian panopticism, and resilience studies, it analyzes the ways trauma fragments identity while institutional labeling reinforces marginalization and stigma. Through the character of Anais Hendricks, the study highlights the psychological effects of abuse, abandonment, and disciplinary control within the care system. It further demonstrates how storytelling, imagination, memory, and social bonds function as survival mechanisms and forms of resistance. Ultimately, the article argues that despite oppression and fragmentation, marginalized youth can negotiate agency and reconstruct identity through resilience and creative self-definition.