Overview

This volume traces the distinct cultural languages in which individual and collective forms of trauma are expressed in diverse variations, including oral and written narratives, literature, comic strips, photography, theatre, and cinematic images. The central argument is that traumatic memories are frequently beyond the sphere of medical, legal, or state intervention. To address these different, often intertwined modes of language, the contributors provide a variety of disciplinary approaches to foster innovative debates and provoke new insights. Prevailing definitions of trauma can best be understood according to the cultural and historical conditions within which they exist. Languages of Trauma explores what this means in practice by scrutinizing varied historical moments from the First World War onwards and particular cultural contexts from across Europe, the United States, Asia, and Africa striving to help decolonize the traditional Western-centred history of trauma, dissolving it into multifaceted transnational histories of trauma cultures.

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9781487508968

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Reviews

Languages of Trauma is a valuable addition to the growing field of trauma studies, most notably for its willingness to engage with topics in a contemporary timeframe, to put cultural representation alongside clinical understandings, to consider the perpetrator as well as the victim/survivor, and to go beyond the Anglo-American experience of the world wars. - Elizabeth Roberts-Pedersen, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Newcastle, Australia Languages of Trauma provides an introduction to a different strand of trauma theory, outlining critiques of earlier generations in the history of the discipline and analysing new avenues and approaches currently trending. With its scope, ambition, and interdisciplinarity, this book provides a major contribution to research. - Aris Mousoutzanis, Principal Lecturer in Film and Screen Studies, University of Brighton

This collection significantly advances trauma studies, a field destined to continue to grow, expand its intellectual purchase and deepen the extent and complexity of its interdisciplinary reach. -- Joy Porter, University of Hull * <em>Social History of Medicine</em> *

"""This collection significantly advances trauma studies, a field destined to continue to grow, expand its intellectual purchase and deepen the extent and complexity of its interdisciplinary reach."" -- Joy Porter, University of Hull * <em>Social History of Medicine</em> *"

""This collection significantly advances trauma studies, a field destined to continue to grow, expand its intellectual purchase and deepen the extent and complexity of its interdisciplinary reach."" -- Joy Porter, University of Hull * <em>Social History of Medicine</em> *

Author Information

Peter Leese is an associate professor in the Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies at the University of Copenhagen. Jason Crouthamel is a professor in the Department of History at Grand Valley State University. Julia Barbara Köhne is FONTE visiting professor in the Faculty of Culture, Social Sciences and Education at Humboldt-University Berlin.

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