1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910462663803321

Titolo

Trauma and romance in contemporary British literature / / edited by Jean-Michel Ganteau and Susana Onega

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York : , : Routledge, , 2013

ISBN

0-203-07376-2

1-283-97254-9

1-135-10488-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (279 p.)

Collana

Routledge studies in contemporary literature ; ; 8

Altri autori (Persone)

GanteauJean-Michel

Onega JaenSusana

Disciplina

823.009/3561

Soggetti

English fiction - 21st century - History and criticism

Wounds and injuries in literature

Psychic trauma in literature

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

pt. I. Ghost stories, repetition and the transmission of trauma -- pt. II. Narratives of distress and individual trauma -- pt. III. Collective trauma, history and ethics -- pt. IV. Therapeutic romance.

Sommario/riassunto

"Drawing on a variety of theoretical approaches including trauma theory, psychoanalysis, genre theory, narrative theory, theories of temporality, cultural theory, and ethics, this book breaks new ground in bringing together trauma and romance, two categories whose collaboration has never been addressed in such a systematic and in-depth way. The volume shows how romance strategies have become an essential component of trauma fiction in general and traumatic realism in particular. It brings to the fore the deconstructive powers of the darker type of romance and its adequacy to perform traumatic acting out and fragmentation. It also zooms in on the variations on the ghost story as medium for the evocation of trans-generational trauma, as well as on the therapeutic drive of romance that favors a narrative presentation of the working-through phase of trauma. Chapters explore various acceptations and extensions of psychic trauma, from



the individual to the cultural, analyzing narrative texts that belong in various genres from the ghost story to the misery memoir to the graphic novel. The selection of primary sources allows for a review of leading contemporary British authors such as Peter Ackroyd, Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, Graham Swift, Sarah Waters and Jeanette Winterson, and of those less canonical such as Jackie Kay, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Justine Picardie, Peter Roche and Adam Thorpe. "--