Synopses & Reviews
Trauma has become an important and influential paradigm for reading contemporary American literature. Conventional critical models of the phenomenon however often result in formulaic and clichéd interpretations. This book breaks away from understanding trauma defined solely and narrowly according to psychoanalytic theories. Instead, it incorporates theories drawn from other fields, such as narratology, in order to analyse specific devices characteristically employed by writers in order to represent and, often, to mimic the effects of trauma. The author also focuses on important issues ignored or underplayed by conventional theoretical understandings of trauma, such as the characteristics and effects of perpetrator narratives. The book is grouped around narrative devices and innovations, such as the metafictional inscription of the narrator into the text, and around important thematic concerns such as 9/11, the Iraq War, and reactions to the Bush administration.
Synopsis
Winner of the 2015 Irish Association for American Studies Peggy O'Brien Book Prize
Examines the representation of trauma in contemporary American fiction and non-fiction
This book looks at the way writers present the effects of trauma in their work. It explores narrative devices, such as 'metafiction', as well as events in contemporary America, including 9/11, the Iraq War, and reactions to the Bush administration. Contemporary American authors who are discussed in depth include Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, Tim O'Brien, Lorrie Moore, Mark Danielewski, Art Spiegelman, Jonathan Safran Foer, Anthony Swofford, Evan Wright, Paul Auster, Philip Roth and Michael Chabon. Contemporary American Trauma Narratives offers a timely and dissenting intervention into debates about American writers' depiction of trauma and its after-effects.
Synopsis
Examines the representation of trauma in contemporary American fiction and non-fiction
This book looks at the way writers present the effects of trauma in their work. It explores narrative devices, such as 'metafiction', as well as events in contemporary America, including 9/11, the Iraq War, and reactions to the Bush administration. Contemporary American authors who are discussed in depth include Carol Shields, Toni Morrison, Tim O'Brien, Mark Danielewski, Art Spiegelman, Jonathan Safran Foer, Anthony Swofford, Evan Wright, Paul Auster, Philip Roth, and Michael Chabon. Contemporary American Trauma Narratives offers a timely and dissenting intervention into debates about American writers' depiction of trauma and its after-effects.
Synopsis
This book looks at the way writers present the effects of trauma in their work. It explores narrative devices, such as 'metafiction', as well as events in contemporary America, including 9/11, the Iraq War, and reactions to the Bush administration. Contemporary American authors who are discussed in depth include Carol Shields, Toni Morrison, Tim O'Brien, Mark Danielewski, Art Spiegelman, Jonathan Safran Foer, Anthony Swofford, Evan Wright, Paul Auster, Philip Roth, and Michael Chabon. Contemporary American Trauma Narratives offers a timely and dissenting intervention into debates about American writers' depiction of trauma and its after-effects.
About the Author
Alan Gibbs is a lecturer in American Literature in the School of English, University College Cork, Ireland.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part 1. Traumatic Forms
1. 'Classical' American Trauma Narratives
2. Traumatic Metafiction and the Inscribed Narrator
Part 2: Traumatic Themes
3. 9/11 and the Postmodernists' Response
4. The Iraq Wars: Testimony, Perpetrators and Adaptation
5. The Bush Administration and Counterfactual Histories
Conclusion.