EXPLORING THE MEANING OF LIFE THROUGH THE LENS OF EXISTENTIAL TRAUMA IN PAULO COEHLO’S THE WINNER STANDS ALONE

Abstract

This paper uses existential trauma theory to analyse Paulo Coelho's The Winner Stands Alone. This paper makes the case for extending trauma theory into existential domains, where crises of meaning, alienation, and spiritual emptiness constitute forms of trauma as destabilising as physical or historical shocks. Previously, trauma studies have mostly concentrated on catastrophic historical events or individual psychological wounds. Coelho's book offers a rich environment for this kind of investigation because it is set in the glitzy but shallow world of the Cannes Film Festival. The outlines of a society scarred by existential emptiness are revealed by the protagonist Igor Malev's journey into murder and the surrounding characters' quest for notoriety, fortune, and approval. This paper shows that The Winner Stands Alone not only criticises consumerist modernity but also dramatises existential trauma as a universal human affliction in the postmodern world, drawing on existentialist thinkers like Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) Judith Herman (1942) and Shoshana Felman (1942) as well as Cathy Caruth (1955) and Dominick LaCapra (1939).