Progress to Postgrad - Modern Languages & Cultures

This mini-lecture will introduce students to trauma studies, a growing branch in the field of cultural studies. In the last decade, feminist, postcolonial and cultural trauma theory has shifted from the focus on a single, punctual originating shock experience as the origin of trauma (Caruth, Laub) to a more broadly conceived and context-specific notion of trauma that takes into consideration the lived experience of trauma and suffering in other historical and cultural (and non-Western) contexts. In this session, we will briefly explore the emergence of and the latest developments in trauma theory, with excerpts of Toni Morrison’s Beloved providing a compelling case study of how literature can provide a creative laboratory for the negotiation of trauma.

• MA in Languages, Literatures and Cultures