Special

American Studies / African / African American Studies

Courtney Mullis (Oglethorpe University)
cmul@****.com (Log-in to reveal)

Given recent challenges, revisions, and returns to the study of trauma in literature, this panel explores how both individual and cultural traumas are represented in literary texts, how contemporary critics and theorists engage with trauma in literature, and the future of literary trauma theory.

In the mid-1990s, Cathy Caruth popularized literary trauma theory, which relies on the Freudian notion of trauma as “unspeakable.” This iteration of literary trauma theory explores the effects of psychological trauma in literature and conceives of traumatic experience as unrepresentable and inaccessible except through flashbacks and imaginative literary expression. Caruth’s concept of trauma, as derived from Freud, Judith Herman, and others, has dominated scholarly conversations regarding trauma in literature and other disciplines since the publication of her collection Trauma: Explorations in Memory (1995).

Since at least the beginning of the 21st century, however, psychologists and other scholars have challenged her theory. Objections to Caruthian trauma theory may disagree with the underlying theory of psychic trauma on which Caruth’s concept rests, or they may argue that the theory only applies to how trauma impacts individuals. Caruthian trauma theory does not account for collective traumas, those psychic injuries that affect a group or even an entire culture and produce lingering aftereffects similar but not identical to individual trauma. Indeed, even if one agrees with Caruth’s original assessment of how trauma functions and appears in literary texts, the mechanisms of individual, psychic trauma do not necessarily apply to broader collective or “cultural” traumas.

Given recent challenges, revisions, and returns to the study of trauma in literature, this panel seeks to explore how both individual and cultural traumas are represented in literary texts, how contemporary critics and theorists engage with trauma in literature, and the future of literary trauma theory.

By July 15, please submit an abstract of 250 words, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Dr. Courtney Mullis (cmullis7@gatech.edu) and Noah Madden (maddenn@duq.edu).