Unspoken Scars: A Systemic Functional Linguistic Analysis of War Trauma and Its Ideological Representations in Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds

This study followed a systemic functional linguistics approach to demonstrate how war trauma is ideologically represented in Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds (2012). It aimed at exploring how Powers’ lexicogrammatical choices reveal the psychological, emotional, and social consequences of war as experienced by American soldiers in Iraq in 2003. Drawing upon Halliday’s ideational (transitivity), interpersonal (modality and power dynamics), and textual (thematic structure) metafunctions, the analysis focused on the exploration of transitivity processes, thematic structure, and experiential meaning to show how trauma is linguistically encoded in the interactions among characters, mainly soldiers and sergeants. Based on a qualitative, exploratory methodology, the study analyzed material, mental, and relational processes to reveal the characters’ inner tensions, power dynamics, and identity struggles. Findings showed that Powers employs fragmented syntax and vivid imagery to reflect the disorientation and dissociation commonly associated with traumatic experiences. Such linguistic choices highlighted three major themes: the psychological impact of war, the loss of innocence, and the complexities of human relationships during wartime. Furthermore, the novel’s use of discourse markers and modality reveals deep moral ambiguity and misuse of authority in wartime. Further research may address trauma discourse in other post-9/11 war fiction across different cultural contexts.