Editor’s Introduction

This issue of the Journal of Literature and Trauma Studies is the result of the 2012 international conference The Literatures of Pain and Suffering, organized by the Department of English in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Macau.

The articles gathered here represent the main lines of argument and core theoretical and subject directions the study of literature and trauma is taking now as well as suggest the outline of main lines of development the discipline will take in the future. The international array implies the breadth and importance that the study of literature and trauma has now attained.

The range and depth of subjects, the variation in theoretical approaches, and the international perspective raise some crucial questions and issues that the articles both evince and attempt to answer. Can the study of literature and trauma extend itself to such an extent and still retain the theoretical rigor and intellectual insight that it has so far maintained? Do we now see the beginnings of a divergence or contestation of theoretical approaches within the discipline, for example, between historical and social perspectives on the one hand and psychoanalytical and text-embedded approaches on the other? Are there serious differences, both at the level of theoretical assumption and at the level of chosen subject matter, in terms of a European approach to trauma and literature and those adopted in Asia, the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia? Can the age-old distinction between “experience” and “literature’ ever be truly put aside? The tripartite organization of this issue into interlocking but also distinctive subdivisions reflects these concerns and developments.

The articles presented here indicate clearly that one of the great strengths of the study of literature and trauma is that it can expose and emphasize these similarities and differences while at the same moment gathering and answering them within its own adaptable and dynamic boundaries.

The editors sincerely thank and acknowledge Dr. Damian Shaw of the Department of English at the University of Macau and Dr. Sharanya jayawickrama of the Department of English Language and Literature of the Hong Kong Shue Yan University for their efforts and accomplishments in the organization of the conference and the preparation of this issue.