Trauma and Public Memory

by Jane R. Goodall (Editor), Christopher Lee (Editor)

During the past decade there has been a rapid growth in literature on traumatic experience, but what remains missing from the expanding field of commentary is any sustained consideration of how those who are outsiders to the experience deal with the challenge of its presence in their world. Related to this are some fundamental questions about how traumatic events are acknowledged in the public domain and come to form part of the fabric of public memory. The contributing writers to this collection are primarily from humanities and cultural history, though there are also essays from specialists in psychology and the social sciences, and interviews with professionals who have a primary involvement with traumatic events. Contributions focus on key traumatic media events of the last decade as well as those during the twentieth century in countries such as the USA, Europe, Japan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Indonesia, Cuba and Australia.

243 pages, Hardcover

First published November 19, 2014

About the author

For the primatologist, see Dame Jane Goodall.

Professor Jane Goodall (b.1951) is a researcher at the Writing and Society Research Centre of Western Sydney University, Australia.

Prof Goodall has written extensively on arts in the modern era, with a special interest in the relationship between the arts and sciences. She has taught undergraduate courses and supervised research projects in relevant areas of arts history, and has conducted local history research on the Parramatta Road. Her academic publications include Artaud and the Gnostic Drama, Performance and Evolution in the Age of Darwin (winner of the Australasian Drama Studies Association’s Robert Jordan Prize), and, with Christa Knellwolf, the collection Frankenstein's Science (Ashgate, 2008), which contextualises Mary Shelley's work in contemporary scientific and literary debates. She is the author of the popular and award winning novels The Walker (2004), The Visitor (2005) and The Calling (2007). Jane's book on Stage Presence was published by Routledge in May 2008.

Reviews

[Gretel · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book. Diverse but with some fascinating case studies.