Trauma Fiction

For the first time, the literary potential of trauma is examined in this book, bringing trauma theory and literary texts together. Trauma Fiction focuses on the ways in which contemporary novelists explore the theme of trauma and incorporate it into their writing. It provides innovative readings of texts by Pat Barker, Jackie Kay, Anne Michaels, Toni Morrison, Caryl Phillips, W. G. Sebald and Binjamin Wilkomirski. By identifying the key stylistic features associated with the genre this book considers the ways in which trauma has affected fictional form and explores how novelists respond to the challenge of writing traumatic narratives. Trauma Fiction introduces the reader to key critics in the field of trauma theory such as Cathy Caruth, Shoshana Felman and Geoffrey Hartman. Linking trauma theory and literary texts points to previously overlooked connections and sheds light on works of contemporary fiction. The distinction between literary theme and style opens up inquiries into the nature of trauma itself. Trauma, like the novels discussed, is shown to take an uncertain but productive place between content and form. Key Features * Idenitifies and explores a new and evolving genre in contemporary fiction * Thinks through the relation between trauma and literature * Produces innovative readings of key works of contemporary fiction * Provides an introduction to central ideas in trauma theory

Anne Whitehead is Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Newcastle University, UK. She is the author of Trauma Fiction (Edinburgh, 2004) and Memory: New Critical Idiom (Routledge, 2009). She has co-edited The Edinburgh Companion to the Critical Medical Humanities (Edinburgh, 2016), Theories of Memory: A Reader (Edinburgh, 2007) and W. G. Sebald: A Critical Companion (Edinburgh, 2004), as well as a special issue of Feminist Theory on feminism and affect. She has published articles on contemporary literature in a range of journals, including Modern Fiction Studies, Textual Practice, and Contemporary Literature.

Acknowledgements; Part I: Theme; Introduction to Part I: Theme; 1. The Past as Revenant: Trauma and Haunting in Pat Barker's Another World; 2. Telling Tales: Trauma and Testimony in Binjamin Wilkomirski's Fragments; 3. 'Ground that will remember you': Trauma and Landscape in Anne; Michaels's Fugitive Pieces; Part II: Style; Introduction to Part II: Style; 4. Othello in the Ghetto: Trauma and Intertextuality in Caryl Phillips's; The Nature of Blood; 5. The Butterfly Man: Trauma and Repetition in the Writing of W. G. Sebald; 6. Recomposing the Past: Trauma and Improvisation in Toni Morrison's; Jazz and Jackie Kay's Trumpet; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography.