Overview

This edited book focuses on the role of scholars in studying their own individual traumas, exploring the complex interplay between personal trauma and scholarly engagement. It gathers a diverse range of contributions, including an essay, seven articles, and an insightful interview. The authors discuss the emotional, ethical, and intellectual challenges they faced in the research and representation of their traumas. They examine how personal and collective wounds shape individual identities, community narratives, and broader societal dynamics in Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas from the 1930s to the present. The causes of trauma are multifaceted and include the current war in the Middle East, school shootings in the USA, the AIDS crisis in South Africa, genocides such as the Holodomor and the Holocaust, nuclear warfare during the Second World War, and childhood abuse. Following the diverse methodologies employed in trauma studies, this volume reflects multidisciplinary backgrounds and will be beneficial for students, scholars, and researchers of literature, film studies, history, psychology, musicology, and visual art. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Life Writing.

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9781041105787

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Idit Gil is the academic director of the MA program of Interdisciplinary Democracy Studies at the Open University of Israel, Ra'anana, Israel. Specialising in Holocaust studies, her research focuses on the intricacies of history, memory, and societal and political dynamics. Her scholarly works about Jewish forced labour, survivor testimonies, and the complexities of Holocaust memory in Israeli society have been featured in publications such as Lessons and Legacies, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Yad Vashem Studies, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Modern Judaism, Israel Studies, and ITS Jahrbuch. She is also the author of the book, The Holocaust: Between the Personal and the History (2017 [Hebrew]). Stefanie Hofer is Associate Professor of German in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures at Virginia Tech, USA. She has published on contemporary German literature and cinematic depictions of Germany’s struggle to come to terms with Nazi atrocities and leftwing terrorism. Her current research focuses on the role of autobiographical narratives in posttraumatic healing. Drawing from her own experiences after the murder of her husband during the 16 April 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, USA, she argues that analysing literary and filmic depictions of loss and trauma across time and cultures can serve as a catharsis for grieving and, ultimately, provide a self-determined space for working through trauma. Her work has appeared in scholarly venues such as American Imago, German Life and Letters, Film Criticism, Film International, Seminar, and Women in German Yearbook.

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