The Future of Trauma Theory: Contemporary Literary and Cultural Criticism ed. by Gert Buelens, Sam Durrant and Robert Eaglestone (review)

As one of the most frequently recurring topics in literary and cultural studies, trauma has been analyzed for several decades from various perspectives and has included a wide range of horrific occurrences, from personal histories of abuse to the aftermath of war crimes and genocides. While the classic cases of large-scale studies on trauma, such as the Holocaust or Vietnam War, are gradually losing their pressing contemporaneity, the topic itself stays relevant to our times due to ever-new global waves of war, revolution, and social upheaval. This topical relevance is addressed by The Future of Trauma Theory, which comprises ten essays all contributing to the expansion of trauma studies in both its geographical scope and its theoretical boundaries. The editors’ statement in the introduction that “‘trauma theory’ is perhaps less a field or a methodology than a coming together of concerns and disciplines” accentuates the interdisciplinary approach of the volume (3). The contributing authors, coming from various disciplines within the humanities, stretch their arguments from sociology to psychology and philosophy, and in some cases make close readings of underacknowledged literary texts from around the world. While reviewing the volume in its entirety, this review will focus on three representative essays that highlight the general themes of the volume and outline its overall argumentative method in order to provide a concise insight into the book’s approach and scope. Each starts by diagnosing a specific shortcoming in current theories of trauma, proceeds to elaborate it through brief close readings of literary texts, and concludes by offering suggestions for improving the theoretical framework under scrutiny.

In the book’s first essay, titled “Knowledge, ‘Afterwardsness,’ and the Future of Trauma Theory,” Robert Eaglestone embarks upon a metacritical evaluation of the recent moves in trauma studies, suggesting that “there has been some shift in the language (at least) of the West, perhaps the world” as a result of the constant awareness of trauma at a global scale (19). The kernel of Eaglestone’s argument is that the ongoing production of books, essays, artworks, and films about trauma is not only a response to but also a symptom of a systematic change in our conceptual framework that results from trauma itself. In examining a memoir by the eminent Holocaust historian Otto Dov Kulka, Eaglestone notes how the historian turns away from artistic representations of the Holocaust while, in a seemingly paradoxical move, relying on Kafka to convey his complicated sense of suffering and salvage. Eaglestone’s essay uses this case study to claim that, in responding to traumatic events, one should “analyze not only the ways that these atrocities outrage the principles and virtues by which we live, but also the ways that they disrupt even how these principles and virtues come to be understood” (19).

Coming from a completely different viewpoint, Stef Craps explores the limits of a Western-based notion of trauma and the problematic prescription of therapeutic methods (as a universally valid practice) for non-Western cultures in the third essay in this collection, “Beyond Eurocentrism: Trauma Theory in the Global Age.” Craps’s essay offers a close reading of Aminatta Forna’s novel The Memory of Love (2010), which is set in post–civil war Sierra Leone and follows a British psychologist who has volunteered to help the local health services. Through a critical reading of this novel, Craps argues that there is a need for a more comprehensive theoretical framework to study trauma that does not “marginalize or ignore traumatic experiences of non-Western or minority cultures” (46). His essay reviews the ongoing objections to the hidden imperialism of Eurocentric concepts like mental illness, uncovering the veiled agenda behind an objective cloak of clinical practice. Craps criticizes the lack of multicultural ethical engagement by arguing against the general promise of trauma theorists that “listening to the trauma of another can contribute...