Liberating the Oppressed Body in Roxane Gay's Hunger

In this chapter, Anxhela Filaj examines Hunger, the memoir by American author Roxane Gay, through the lens of trauma narrativity and the psychosocial consequences of embodied self-perception. The analysis foregrounds Gay's articulation of early-life sexual violence and its enduring impact on her corporeal self-image, investigating how profound trauma reconfigures narrative identity. Drawing on the theoretical framework of intersectionality, Filaj situates Gay's account within a matrix of overlapping structural disadvantages, including race, gender, body size, and cultural heritage, to explore how these intersecting axes shape the narrative possibilities available to survivors of trauma. The memoir is thus read not only as a personal testimony but also as a critical intervention in dominant discourses surrounding embodiment, trauma, and marginalized identities.