The Silenced and Spectral Voice of Women Narrators: Textual Anxieties in Brief Encounter and Letter from an Unknown Woman

Abstract

This paper analyzes two films from the 1940s, Brief Encounter (David Lean) and Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls), to examine textual anxieties aroused by the physical, verbal, and authorial voice of the woman narrator. In both films, the first-person voiceover narration of the female protagonist generates and maneuvers flashback sequences that are central to the film’s narrative. Although the woman’s voice is ostensibly foregrounded by the narration, it is in constant peril of being silenced or becoming spectral by narrative devices that challenge the authority of female narrators and deny them ownership of the narrative. This indicates the constant struggle between the woman’s narrative agency and patriarchal discourse that negates or undermines words spoken by women. This paper discusses the narrative power granted to women narrators and interrogates the extent of this power. I identify contradictions in the text, specifically in the film’s voiceover narration and flashback structure, which elucidate the destabilizing and destabilized nature of the woman’s voice.