As part of the contemporary reassessment of trauma that goes beyond Freudian psychoanalysis, Laurie Vickroy theorizes trauma in the context of psychological, literary, and cultural criticism. Focusing on novels by Margaret Atwood, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Jeanette Winterson, and Chuck Palahniuk, she shows how these writers try to enlarge our understanding of the relationship between individual traumas and the social forces of injustice, oppression, and objectification. Further, she argues, their work provides striking examples of how the devastating effects of trauma?whether sexual, socioeconomic, or racial?on individual personality can be depicted in narrative.Vickroy analyzes the ways in which her selected texts engage readers both cognitively and ethically to reveal their own roles in systems of power and how they internalize the ideologies of those systems.

About the Author
Laurie Vickroy, Professor of English at Bradley University, USA is author of Trauma and Survival in Contemporary Fiction (Virginia).

Reviews
"Reading Trauma Narratives is a perceptive, timely, and challenging work."" -J. Brooks Bouson, Loyola University of Chicago



Book Information
ISBN 9780813937380
Author Laurie Vickroy
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint University of Virginia Press
Publisher University of Virginia Press
Weight(grams) 310g