Didier Fassin and Richard Rechtman, The Empire of Trauma: An Inquiry into the Condition of Victimhood (original) (raw)
Related papers
Barrette, Catherine; Haylock, Bridget & Mortimer, Danielle (Hg.): Traumatic Imprints. Performance, Art, Literature and Theoretical Practice. Oxford (Inter-Disciplinary Press), S. 199-207.
Since 9/11 at the latest, the idea that entire collectives or societies can be traumatized by shattering historical events has witnessed a significant upsurge. Theoretical concepts of collective or societal trauma are surprisingly scarce though. Notable exceptions are Volkan's mass psychological concept of 'chosen trauma' and Alexander's rather sociological notion of 'cultural trauma'. But while Alexander's focus on the social construction of trauma narratives is blind to the real suffering of people and its possible societal consequences, Volkan takes human suffering as a starting point but falls prey to the analyzed communities' own 'invention of tradition' (Hobsbawm/Ranger). His blindness towards the constructive character of 'collective traumas' is problematic because the traumarelated concept of victimhood is used by many collectives in order to legitimate political claims or mask their own perpetratorship. In my chapter I want to follow up the question of how it is possible to speak about human suffering after wars, genocides and persecutions while at the same time countering the pervasive ideological trauma and victimhood discourses. With Hans Keilson, Ernst Simmel and psychoanalytic trauma theory I argue that all traumatization processes must be understood in societal context. The psychosocial reality before, during, and after the traumatizing event always shapes the trauma.
Chapter 2 Philosophies of Trauma
Literary trauma studies is a rapidly developing field which examines how literature deals with the personal and cultural aspects of trauma and engages with such historical and current phenomena as the Holocaust and other genocides, 9/11, climate catastrophe or the still unsettled legacy of colonialism. The Routledge Companion to Literature and Trauma is a comprehensive guide to the history and theory of trauma studies, including key concepts, consideration of critical perspectives and discussion of future developments. It also explores different genres and media, such as poetry, life-writing, graphic narratives, photography and post-apocalyptic fiction, and analyses how literature engages with particular traumatic situations and events, such as the Holocaust, the Occupation of France, the Rwandan genocide, Hurricane Katrina and transgenerational nuclear trauma. Forty essays from top thinkers in the field demonstrate the range and vitality of trauma studies as it has been used to fur...
Trauma Theory: Contexts, Politics, Ethics
Paragraph, 2007
This article discusses the current 'popularity' of trauma research in the Humanities and examines the ethics and politics of trauma theory, as exemplified in the writings of Caruth and Felman and Laub. Written from a position informed by Laplanchian and object relations psychoanalytic theory, it begins by examining and offering a critique of trauma theory's model of subjectivity, and its relations with theories of referentiality and representation, history and testimony. Next, it proposes that although trauma theory's subject matter -the sufferings of others -makes critique difficult, the theory's politics, its exclusions and inclusions, and its unconscious drives and desires are as deserving of attention as those of any other theory. Arguing that the political and cultural contexts within which this theory has risen to prominence have remained largely unexamined, the article concludes by proposing that trauma theory needs to act as a brake against rather than as a vehicle for cultural and political Manicheanism.
Chapter One: Theorizing Trauma
Wounds and Words, 2013
"Trauma has become a paradigm because it has been turned into a repertoire of compelling stories about the enigmas of identity, memory and selfhood that have saturated Western cultural life." (ROGER LUCKHURST, THE TRAUMA QUESTION) Any attempt to define and theorize "trauma" involves a struggle to make sense of the confusing array of current conceptualizations of trauma, ranging from PTSD to cultural trauma. Any attempt to write a history of trauma faces further challenges in trying to find a way through the jungle-like complexity of the historiography of psychiatry. Roy Porter and Mark Micale emphasize the highly controversial nature of the history of psychiatry and conclude that "it has thus far proved impossible to produce anything like an enduring, comprehensive, authoritative history" (6). 1 Within the contested field of psychiatry, trauma is, in turn, a particularly controversial subject. The history of trauma is a history of repeated gaps and ruptures, with cyclical periods of attention and neglect, of fascination and rejection (van der Kolk,
A Shifting Paradigm In Trauma Studies: Issues And Challenges In Its Meta-Discourses
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CREATIVE RESEARCH THOUGHTS, 2024
In the 21 st century the word 'trauma' is not only used as a homogenous medical concept but also considered as a multidimensional psychological and moral idea. Earlier it meant the physical injuries caused by the 'shocking event'. From that perspective, it was referring to only 'shock', letting the people paralyze in response. That's what is implanted in the common people-'trauma' means 'shock'. The change did not take place until the emergence of Freud's psychological study of hysteria and unconsciousness in the 1920s. Following him, this stereotypical illusion gets vagued with further analysis of 'trauma' by different distinguished theorists such as Cathy Caruth, Michael Alexander, Dominick LaCapra, etc. The study of psychological trauma steers at high speed especially after the Second World War. The journey does not even stop here. Parallelly it glides into its transitional moral phase after the 1970s. Here it extends its wing in any protest and violence, be it regional racial or religious, or communal. The ethical values fade away and moral judgment gets challenged. Thus, this paper aims at presenting all of these transitional phases including the discussion of socio-cultural-political dimensions. The 'mobility' in this field galvanizes the connection of different discourses simultaneously. It also focuses on the interconnection of diverse genres and generations with their heterogeneous lenses and temperaments.
The contributors of this volume demonstrate how a highly developed expertise in interpreting Biblical and cognate literature is a substantial part of the overall discourse on the historical, literary, social, political, and religious dimensions of trauma in past and present. This idea is based on the assumption that trauma is not only a modern concept which derives from 20th century psychiatry: It is an ancient phenomenon already which predates modern discourses. Trauma studies will thus profit from how Theology - specifically Biblical exegesis - and the Humanities deal with trauma in terms of religion, history, sociology, and politics.