LIT3066   Identity/ Crisis: Trauma, Narrative, Self   (20 credits)

Description

With reference to range of cultural texts, this module will explore the ways in which our identities are bound up with narratives, both those we claim to `write' for ourselves and those which are written for us, or on us. This idea comes into sharp relief in the context of the representation of trauma and distress. We will study the ways in which trauma disturbs the smooth surfaces of life-narratives and often prompts a rethinking of the categories of identity, experience, and history. Some work on trauma suggests that only literary, `poetic' texts can deal adequately with the `unspeakability' of acute crisis and its uncanny irruptions and repetitions. We will scrutinise this notion, engaging with Sarah Kofman's critical question: How can one speak of that before which all possibility of speech ceases?.

Reading List