The Artistic Representation of Childhood Trauma in English and Uzbek Psychological Thrillers (Based on Gillian Flynn’s “Dark Places” and Komil Sindarov’s “O‘g‘irlangan Bolalik”)

Abstract

This article examines the artistic representation of childhood trauma in English and Uzbek psychological thriller and detective fiction through a comparative analysis of Gillian Flynn’s novel “Dark Places” and Komil Sindarov’s work “O‘g‘irlangan bolalik”. The study focuses on childhood trauma as a factor that shapes memory, identity, family relations and later behaviour. Particular attention is paid to traumatic memory, the influence of family environment, the relationship between childhood experience and crime, and the ways in which the past returns in the characters’ present lives. In Flynn’s novel, childhood trauma is primarily represented through fragmented memory, the reconstruction of a family tragedy and the protagonist’s return to the past. In Sindarov’s work, the idea of “stolen childhood” is connected with family, social environment, childhood vulnerability and the psychological consequences of being deprived of a safe childhood