History, Memory, Trauma in Contemporary British and Irish Fiction
Pages: 198
Book format: B5
Publication date: 2014
Publication date: 09.12.2014
E-book publication date: 14.10.2024
Book description
History, memory and trauma as well as their complex interrelations have been lying at the centre of interdisciplinary academic debates since the end of the previous century. These are also themes with which contemporary writers and other artists are increasingly preoccupied in their work. History, Memory, Trauma in Contemporary British and Irish Fiction is an attempt at analysing the relationship between history, memory and trauma in the selected novels of Pat Barker, Sebastian Barry, Kazuo Ishiguro and John Banville. The author examines the notion of memory in a variety of contexts: collective memory in the historical novels of Barker and Barry, individual memory as a foundation of the sense of self in the novels of Banville and Ishiguro, and traumatic memory in the novels of Barry and Ishiguro. By applying the theoretical framework of trauma studies to the work of those renowned writers, History, Memory, Trauma offers new interpretations of their novels. The author demonstrates that contemporary fiction moves beyond mere representation of trauma and engages the reader in the role of co-witness who enables the process of working through trauma.
BEATA PIĄTEK is a lecturer and researcher at the Institute of English Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. She specialises in literary and cultural studies, her interests include: memory, narrative and identity in contemporary British fiction, and the dynamics of exchange between film and literature. In 2002, she co-edited with Peter Leese and Izabela Curyłło-Klag an anthology The British Migrant Experience 1700–2000 (Palgrave), she has published articles about the work of Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Kazuo Ishiguro, Colm Tóibín, Sebastian Barry and John Banville.
BEATA PIĄTEK is a lecturer and researcher at the Institute of English Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. She specialises in literary and cultural studies, her interests include: memory, narrative and identity in contemporary British fiction, and the dynamics of exchange between film and literature. In 2002, she co-edited with Peter Leese and Izabela Curyłło-Klag an anthology The British Migrant Experience 1700–2000 (Palgrave), she has published articles about the work of Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Kazuo Ishiguro, Colm Tóibín, Sebastian Barry and John Banville.
Authors
Beata Piątek
ISBN: 978-83-233-3824-6
e-ISBN (pdf): 978-83-233-9150-0
Country of manufacturer: Poland
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History, Memory, Trauma in Contemporary British and Irish Fiction
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations 9
PREFACE
Why Barker, Barry, Ishiguro and Banville 11
CHAPTER 1
Why History, Memory and Trauma 15
History vs Fiction 18
Memory Studies 23
Trauma: Terminology 32
Before Trauma Theory 34
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 38
Trauma Theory from the 1990s Onwards 40
Critical Voices: The Pitfalls of Trauma Theory 45
SECTION I: HISTORY AND TRAUMA
CHAPTER 2
Pat Barker – The Trauma of World War I 51
The Regeneration Trilogy – Historical Revisionism and Cultural Trauma 52
The Past Invading the Present – Transgenerational Trauma in Another World 72
Double Vision: The Omnipresence of Violence 78
From Cultural Trauma to Victim Culture 84
CHAPTER 3
Sebastian Barry – From Historical to Historicized Fiction 87
An Irish Aeneas in The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty 89
A Long Long Way: The Irish in the Trenches 93
The Trauma of Irish History in The Secret Scripture 104
On Canaan’s Side: “Four Killing Wars” in the Life of One Woman 111
Piątek.indd 7 2014-11-21 06:57:32
SECTION II: MEMORY AND TRAUMA
CHAPTER 4
Kazuo Ishiguro ‒ The Movements of the Mind Remembering 119
A Pale View of Hills: Buried History and the Trauma of the Text 121
When We Were Orphans: Mummification of Childhood 128
CHAPTER 5
John Banville – Crisis of the Self 145
Eclipse: Stranded in the Past 151
Shroud: “a talking shell, an empty costume 161
Ancient Light: The Invention of the Past 169
CONCLUSION 179
BIBLIOGRAPHY 187
List of Abbreviations 9
PREFACE
Why Barker, Barry, Ishiguro and Banville 11
CHAPTER 1
Why History, Memory and Trauma 15
History vs Fiction 18
Memory Studies 23
Trauma: Terminology 32
Before Trauma Theory 34
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 38
Trauma Theory from the 1990s Onwards 40
Critical Voices: The Pitfalls of Trauma Theory 45
SECTION I: HISTORY AND TRAUMA
CHAPTER 2
Pat Barker – The Trauma of World War I 51
The Regeneration Trilogy – Historical Revisionism and Cultural Trauma 52
The Past Invading the Present – Transgenerational Trauma in Another World 72
Double Vision: The Omnipresence of Violence 78
From Cultural Trauma to Victim Culture 84
CHAPTER 3
Sebastian Barry – From Historical to Historicized Fiction 87
An Irish Aeneas in The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty 89
A Long Long Way: The Irish in the Trenches 93
The Trauma of Irish History in The Secret Scripture 104
On Canaan’s Side: “Four Killing Wars” in the Life of One Woman 111
Piątek.indd 7 2014-11-21 06:57:32
SECTION II: MEMORY AND TRAUMA
CHAPTER 4
Kazuo Ishiguro ‒ The Movements of the Mind Remembering 119
A Pale View of Hills: Buried History and the Trauma of the Text 121
When We Were Orphans: Mummification of Childhood 128
CHAPTER 5
John Banville – Crisis of the Self 145
Eclipse: Stranded in the Past 151
Shroud: “a talking shell, an empty costume 161
Ancient Light: The Invention of the Past 169
CONCLUSION 179
BIBLIOGRAPHY 187
History, Memory, Trauma in Contemporary British and Irish Fiction
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations 9
PREFACE
Why Barker, Barry, Ishiguro and Banville 11
CHAPTER 1
Why History, Memory and Trauma 15
History vs Fiction 18
Memory Studies 23
Trauma: Terminology 32
Before Trauma Theory 34
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 38
Trauma Theory from the 1990s Onwards 40
Critical Voices: The Pitfalls of Trauma Theory 45
SECTION I: HISTORY AND TRAUMA
CHAPTER 2
Pat Barker – The Trauma of World War I 51
The Regeneration Trilogy – Historical Revisionism and Cultural Trauma 52
The Past Invading the Present – Transgenerational Trauma in Another World 72
Double Vision: The Omnipresence of Violence 78
From Cultural Trauma to Victim Culture 84
CHAPTER 3
Sebastian Barry – From Historical to Historicized Fiction 87
An Irish Aeneas in The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty 89
A Long Long Way: The Irish in the Trenches 93
The Trauma of Irish History in The Secret Scripture 104
On Canaan’s Side: “Four Killing Wars” in the Life of One Woman 111
Piątek.indd 7 2014-11-21 06:57:32
SECTION II: MEMORY AND TRAUMA
CHAPTER 4
Kazuo Ishiguro ‒ The Movements of the Mind Remembering 119
A Pale View of Hills: Buried History and the Trauma of the Text 121
When We Were Orphans: Mummification of Childhood 128
CHAPTER 5
John Banville – Crisis of the Self 145
Eclipse: Stranded in the Past 151
Shroud: “a talking shell, an empty costume 161
Ancient Light: The Invention of the Past 169
CONCLUSION 179
BIBLIOGRAPHY 187
List of Abbreviations 9
PREFACE
Why Barker, Barry, Ishiguro and Banville 11
CHAPTER 1
Why History, Memory and Trauma 15
History vs Fiction 18
Memory Studies 23
Trauma: Terminology 32
Before Trauma Theory 34
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 38
Trauma Theory from the 1990s Onwards 40
Critical Voices: The Pitfalls of Trauma Theory 45
SECTION I: HISTORY AND TRAUMA
CHAPTER 2
Pat Barker – The Trauma of World War I 51
The Regeneration Trilogy – Historical Revisionism and Cultural Trauma 52
The Past Invading the Present – Transgenerational Trauma in Another World 72
Double Vision: The Omnipresence of Violence 78
From Cultural Trauma to Victim Culture 84
CHAPTER 3
Sebastian Barry – From Historical to Historicized Fiction 87
An Irish Aeneas in The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty 89
A Long Long Way: The Irish in the Trenches 93
The Trauma of Irish History in The Secret Scripture 104
On Canaan’s Side: “Four Killing Wars” in the Life of One Woman 111
Piątek.indd 7 2014-11-21 06:57:32
SECTION II: MEMORY AND TRAUMA
CHAPTER 4
Kazuo Ishiguro ‒ The Movements of the Mind Remembering 119
A Pale View of Hills: Buried History and the Trauma of the Text 121
When We Were Orphans: Mummification of Childhood 128
CHAPTER 5
John Banville – Crisis of the Self 145
Eclipse: Stranded in the Past 151
Shroud: “a talking shell, an empty costume 161
Ancient Light: The Invention of the Past 169
CONCLUSION 179
BIBLIOGRAPHY 187
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