Worlds of Hurt: Reading the Literatures of Trauma

by Kalí Tal

Overview

Worlds of Hurt presents a coherent rendering of the relationships between individual trauma and cultural interpretation, using as its focus the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, and the phenomenon of sexualized violence against women. Survivors of these traumas constitute themselves as unique communities and bear witness to their traumatic experiences both privately and publicly. The survivors themselves write a "literature of trauma"—born of the need to tell and retell the story of the traumatic experience, to make it "real" to the victim, the community and to the larger pyblic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521565127
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/24/1995
Series:	Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture , #95
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.83(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; 1. Worlds of hurt: reading the literature of trauma; 2. A form of witness: the Holocaust and North American memory; 3. Between the lines: reading the Vietnam war; 4. The farmer of dreams: the writings of W. D. Ehrhart; 5. There was no plot, and I discovered it by mistake: trauma, community and the revisionary process; 6. We didn't know what would happen: opening the discourse on sexual abuse; 7. This is about power on every level: three incest survivor narratives; This is not a conclusion; Notes; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...demonstrates methodological strength in informative and enlightening close textual analyses. [Tal's] analysis of the collective trauma women suffer is excellent..." Choice

"This audacious and brilliant book is designed to make us feel, among other things, very uncomfortable...a strikingly original and valuable contribution." H. Bruce Franklin, Rutgers University

"[Tal's] careful comparison and discussion are an important contribution to our understanding of the social construction of profound traumatic experiences and how they are made tolerable by the surviviors and the wider society." Canadaian Review of Comparative Literature

From the Publisher