The Detective Work of Memory: (Mis)Remembered Trauma and the Detective Narrative in Nicci French’s The Memory Game

Martínez-Alfaro, María Jesús (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: In the preface to Trauma Fiction, Anne Whitehead dates the origin of contemporary trauma studies to the year 1980, when post-traumatic stress disorder was first included in the diagnostic canon of the medical and psychiatric professions. Following on this landmark event, the concept of trauma gradually traveled from medical and scientific discourse to the humanities in general and to the field of literary studies in particular. Thus, in the early 1990s scholars and critics associated with the Yale School of deconstruction-former colleagues of Paul de Man, like Cathy Caruth, Shoshana Felman and Geoffrey H. Hartman, among others-developed critical tools for the study of Holocaust narratives which furthered trauma studies in the humanities. To Whitehead, this fact points to 'a specific affinity of literary criticism with trauma theory and suggests that trauma theory is inherently linked to the literary'...

Idioma: Inglés

Año: 2013

Publicado en: Critical engagements 6, 2 (2013), 43-58
ISSN: 1754-0984

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)

Área (Departamento): Área Filología Inglesa (Dpto. Filolog.Inglesa y Alema.)