LIT6360   Memory and Trauma in Contemporary Literature   (30 credits)

Description

This module examines a variety of texts about traumatic memory. The texts range widely both generically (testimony and fiction) and thematically (historical and personal trauma). Particular writers include W G Sebald, Georges Perec, Ian McEwan and Meg Rosoff. The texts will be studied in relation to classic and contemporary theories of trauma, particularly those of Sigmund Freud, Cathy Caruth, and Dominick LaCapra. Attention will be paid to the ways in which narrative form is affected by traumatic content, and the recurrence of certain literary tropes and devices these include the descent to hell, fragmentary or childhood memory, and the photograph.

Reading List