Rhetoric of Forgetting and Linguistic Trauma in Sherine’s Batmanna Ansak

This study investigates how the rhetoric of forgetting and linguistic trauma are represented in Sherine Abdel Wahab's "Batmanna Ansak" through the deconstruction of binary oppositions. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, the research analyzes five purposively sampled lyrical units, focusing on Derrida’s concepts of differance, trace, and binary structures such as memory/forgetting and life/death. The analysis reveals that the lyrics systematically undermine binary oppositions through rhetorical repetition. The expressed desire to forget (absence) paradoxically strengthens the presence of memory as an indelible trace. Phrases like "I wish I could forget you" create a suspension of meaning, where linguistic trauma manifests as a dependency between the illusion of love and the reality of pain. Ultimately, the song presents a hyperreality of trauma that blurs the boundaries between presence and absence, offering a poststructuralist insight into how language shapes and deforms human emotional dynamics. This study concludes that the text opens an endless interpretative space, resisting linear narratives of emotional resolution

Binary opposition · Forgetting · Metonymy · Narrative · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Mental Health via Writing