Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: The conceptual field of trauma theory in postcolonial studies has from the start enabled the inclusion of interdisciplinary research, but postcolonial literary critics have long hesitated to develop innovative approaches to explore new areas for trauma theory. Now, however, there is a widespread understanding that a broader, interdisciplinary, comparative, and relational approach to trauma will open ways of accommodating not only culture-specific, but also broader ethical and political registers of trauma research for postcolonial studies. This relational, non-oppositional approach is what this article explores and demonstrates in an analysis of Toni Morrison’s novel Home (2012). It argues that Morrison addresses, absorbs and transforms pre-existing discourses on trauma and race, contributing to conceptualizations of modes of healing and redress not currently privileged in cultural trauma theory.
Author: Irene Visser
Institution: University of Groningen
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1487747231