Beyond the Wound: Queer Trauma, Memory, and Resistance in Rainbow Milk

Abstract

This paper explores how trauma functions not only as a mark of suffering but as a generative force of memory, agency, and resistance. Traditional trauma narratives often confine queer bodies to sites of pain, overlooking their role in reshaping history and reclaiming identity. Drawing on Ann Cvetkovich’s concept of queer trauma as an anti-pathological force, this study examines how Rainbow Milk portrays distress not as an individual affliction requiring clinical intervention but as an insidious, intergenerational experience that circulates through familial silence and socio-cultural marginalization. At the same time, the novel illustrates how trauma can open pathways to self-expression and historical reclamation. By uncovering his family’s hidden past, the protagonist embarks on an unconventional healing process that links personal memory with collective histories of exclusion. In doing so, Rainbow Milk reframes trauma not as a fixed wound but as a dynamic, lived experience that enables identity reconstruction through remembrance, connection, and resilience.