Post-traumatic Culture: Injury and Interpretation in the Nineties

According to Kirby Farrell, the concept of trauma has shaped some of the central narratives of the 1990s—from the war stories of Vietnam vets to the video farewells of Heaven's Gate cult members, from apocalyptic sci-fi movies to Ronald Reagan's memoir, Where's the Rest of Me? In Post-traumatic Culture, Farrell explores the surprising uses of trauma as both an enabling fiction and an explanatory tool during periods of overwhelming cultural change.

Farrell's investigation begins in late Victo...