contemporary American trauma narrative

Issue 8.2 - Special Issue "Locating the Centre in Contemporary Literature" Previous Issues

Decentring the “Scumbag” Veteran

Sarah Collier July 13, 2020 No Comments Addiction autofiction Contemporary American Literature contemporary American trauma narrative Contemporary US Culture Decentring War Culture

“How do you get to be a scumbag?” wonders the veteran protagonist of Nico Walker’s novel, “Cherry”. A tale of war, dope fiends and bank robbery, Walker’s auto-fictional debut isn’t short of despicable people doing despicable things. The scumbag veteran, however, marks a striking departure from the veteran hero familiar to the contemporary cultural landscape.

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Issue 1.7 Previous Issues

A New Century of Trauma?

Lewis Ward December 9, 2012 6 Comments Aminatta Forna Austerlitz Cathy Caruth Citizen and Me contemporary American trauma narrative Delia Jarrett-Macauley Dominick LaCapra Eurocentricism incomprehensibility Interrogating Trauma in the Humanities Jean-Michel Ganteau Kali Tal Kantian sublime Kazuo Ishiguro Moses multidirectional memory negative capability pathologization pathology psychiatric responses to trauma Shoshana Felman Sierra Leone civil war Susana Onega The Memory of Love trauma literature trauma theory University of Lincoln W. G. Sebald

According to Shoshana Felman, “The twentieth century can be defined as a century of trauma” (171 n.1). But is the trauma paradigm relevant for…

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