Memory, Trauma and Post-conflict Situations

Much has been written about the causes and political effects of rage, rebellion and revolution, and the events themselves have been extensively documented by the media and creative artists alike, through photojournalism, live reporting, filmic re-staging, historical analyses and creative fiction. However, those left suffering the repercussions of conflict – those individuals left with post-traumatic disorders, disabling flashbacks, dissociative behaviour and memory loss - also require a voice to bear witness to their suffering. Writers who attempt to depict the aftermath of traumatic events or periods of conflict (the Holocaust, 9/11, the Bosnian wars, the Rwandan genocide the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’, etc.) are faced with two seemingly insurmountable difficulties. The first has to do with the nature of the events themselves: deemed to be ‘epochal events’, or moments of ‘historical rupture’, they perpetuate a narrative of historical exceptionalism and so are regarded as unrepresentable. The second difficulty has to do with the very nature of trauma since it, too, is said to ‘evade structure and shatter identity’ (Goldberg, 2006). The overall research project explores the diverse ways in which poets, novelists, filmmakers, photographers and playwrights attempt to overcome representational difficulties by mimicking the forms and symptoms of trauma in their work. Issues examined include the ethics of depicting perpetrator trauma, the tensions involved in peace and reconciliation, and the necessity (and the cost) of forgetting the past.

To contribute to the project, we welcome PhD applications on single or multiple authors/photographers/filmmakers focused on post-conflict situations. We welcome single or interdisciplinary applications (but one of the disciplines must be literature).