Trauma and Literature

This course seeks to engage with the diverse ways in which literary texts have responded to traumatic and critical events in private and public history. The cultural and psychological impact of trauma in literature and society will be examined in detail through a close reading of selected texts from different literary periods, genres and traditions. Through a discussion of a range of texts, the course will map emergent critical theories in the field of trauma studies and memory studies. Exploring the relationship between trauma, memory and history, the course will also showcase the many possibilities of generating alternate histories through the re-telling of events.INTENDED AUDIENCE : MA/PhD students and FacultyPREREQUISITES : BA in English Literature or Cultural Studies

Week 1 : Toba Tek Singh, Cold Meat
Week 2 : The Other Side of Silence
Week 3 : The Fly
Week 4 : Mrs. Dalloway Week 5 : The New Wounded
Week 6 : The Ontology of the Accident
Week 7 : Catch-22
Week 8 : Slaughterhouse-Five
Week 9 : Trauma Fiction
Week 10 : Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History
Week 11 : Beloved
Week 12 : Nervous Conditions