Traumatic Memory and the Ethical, Political and Transhistorical Functions of Literature

"The present volume explores anew the complex aesthetic relationship between trauma and memory. The various essays, written by an outstandingly diverse body of scholars-in terms of nationalities and theoretical perspective- have it in common to rethink the question of the representation of trauma: while stemming from a highlighting attention to seminal psychoanalytical and philosophical texts, they convincingly argue for an inclusion of ethical and political dimensions that will delve at the core of fiction and its specific means of expression and strategies. Never swerving from valuable textual close reading, the authors decidedly and often boldly explore the limits of previous theories the better to promote challenging multidisciplinary reflections on the particularities of "Trauma fiction" in a strikingly optimistic way, focusing on what remains rather than what is lost: a deconstruction of various preconceptions that entails and promotes a much needed revisitation of the function of literature." (Marc Amfreville, Professor of American Literature and Trauma Studies at Paris-Sorbonne University) "Bringing together current scholarly debates on trauma, memory, and affect, this volume makes an original contribution to research on twentieth-century and contemporary literature. It forcefully demonstrates how productively the arts contribute to major cultural challenges, ranging from the Holocaust to the legacy of the colonial system. Individual essays address traumatic memories in various European countries and beyond, revealing the richness of formal strategies employed by writers to evoke and abate the personal and collective spectres as they relate to cultural memory." (Gerd Bayer, Professor of English Literary and Cultural Studies, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)

This volume addresses the construction and artistic representation of traumatic memories in the contemporary Western world from a variety of inter- and trans-disciplinarity critical approaches and perspectives, ranging from the cultural, political, historical, and ideological to the ethical and aesthetic, and distinguishing between individual, collective, and cultural traumas. The chapters introduce complementary concepts from diverse thinkers including Cathy Caruth, Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, Homi Bhabha, Abraham and Torok, and Joyce Carol Oates; they also draw from fields of study such as Memory Studies, Theory of Affects, Narrative and Genre Theory, and Cultural Studies.

Traumatic Memory and the Political, Economic, and Transhistorical Functions of Literature addresses trauma as a culturally embedded phenomenon and deconstructs the idea of trauma as universal, transhistorical, and abstract.