Literature and trauma
Etablissement : ESPOL European School of Political and Social Sciences
Langue : Anglais
Formation(s) dans laquelle/lesquelles le cours apparait :
Période : S1
No pre-requisite. However, attention should be paid to the fact that some passages analyzed in class are related to – and sometimes represent – traumatic experience.
By the end of the course, the students will be familiar with the historical development of trauma literary theory and be able to use the theoretical lens to read and analyze literary representations of trauma.
This course presents how trauma literature can shed light on particular events which are usually thought to participate in the construction of the American identity. First, the theoretical framework of Trauma Studies in general will be examined and discussed, in order to be able to analyze texts within this perspective. Literary accounts of slavery and segregation, war (WW II, Vietnam war, “War on terror”), 9/11 and more personal trauma, will be studied in order to define both the literary characteristics of trauma literature and its political relevance.
A variety of authors will be studied (DuBois, Toni Morrison, Art Spiegelman, Tim O’Brien, Don DeLillo, Jonathan Safran Foer, Joyce Carol Oates…) as well as theoretical texts (Freud, Cathy Caruth, E. Ann Kaplan, Michelle Balaev, …).
