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Holocaust Memory in Contemporary Narratives: Towards a

Theory of Transgenerational Empathy

Submitted by Lewis Wardto the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree ofDoctor of Philosophy in English, September 2008

!his thesis is available for library use on the understanding that it is copyright materialand that no "uotation from the thesis may be published #ithout proper

ac$no#ledgment

% certify that all material in this thesis #hich is not my o#n #or$ has been identified andthat no material has previously been submitted and approved for the a#ard of a degree

by this or any other University

&&&&&&&&&&&&&

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Astract

'hat is the relationship bet#een #riting in the present and the traumatic historical

events that form the sub(ect of that #riting) 'hat narrative strategies do authors

employ in order to negotiate the ethical and epistemological problems raised by this gap

in time and experience)

*!rauma theory+ is undermined by clinical controversies and contradictory claims for

*literal truth+ and *incomprehensibility+ Similarly, the olocaust has been considered

inherently unrepresentable unless by those #ho #itnessed it, leading to a false

opposition bet#een genres of *testimony+ and *fiction+ - #ay out of these dead ends

is to consider the role of the first.person narrator in contemporary olocaust narratives

'hile use of this device ris$s an inappropriate level of identification #ith those #hose

experience is both extreme and un$no#able, % argue that this problem may be resolved

to an extent through *transgenerational empathy+, an approach to the past that is self.

reflexive, incorporates ideas of time, memory and generations, and moves both to#ards

and a#ay from the victims of the past in a simultaneous gesture of proximity and

distance /or this theory % dra# on Dominic$ a1apras definitions of empathy and

*empathic unsettlement+, and on ans.3eorg 3adamers concept of the *fusion of

hori4ons+ bet#een past and present

!ransgenerational empathy involves giving e"ual #eight to *memory+ and *history+

-n over.emphasis on memory leads to narratives that are merely identificatory, such as

-nne 5ichaelsFugitive Piecesand 6in(amin 'il$omirs$isFragments %n contrast,

' 3 Sebalds use of a narrative persona in The EmigrantsandAusterlitzenables

transgenerational empathy in narrative by simultaneously imposing layers of distance

#hile establishing close personal connection Similarly, 7onathan Safran /oers third.

generation aesthetic of *post.postmemory+ inEverything is Illuminateduses a *dual

persona+ device to foreground empathically the abyss at the heart of any attempt to

recapture the past 5y analysis of these authors dra#s on the #ritings of 3illian ose,

Paul icoeur, 5arianne irsch and 7ac"ues Derrida o#ever, the concept of

*transgenerational empathy+ #ould benefit from further research, both in terms of its

*temporal dimension+ and the use of narrative personae by other contemporary authorssuch as Philip oth

2

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Tale of Contents

-bstract 2!able of 1ontents 9-c$no#ledgements :

%ntroduction; olocaust memory and the ethics of representation , and selections from Sebalds oeuvre 'hitehead

ma$es an explicit lin$ bet#een *trauma theory+ and contemporary fiction, asserting that

each informs the other Specifically, she invo$es 1athy 1aruths development of

/reuds$achtr9glich-eittheory into the concept of *belatedness+ to account for

instances of nonlinear narrative and the presence of ghosts and haunting in recent fiction

Cthe exemplar being !oni 5orrisons"eloved 'hitehead also asserts that the *$ey

stylistic features+ of trauma fiction, *intertextuality, repetition and a dispersed or

fragmented narrative voice+ C8:, imitate the #or$ings of traumatic memory; *Bovelists

have fre"uently found that the impact of trauma can only ade"uately be represented by

mimic$ing its forms and symptoms, so that temporality and chronology collapse, and

narratives are characteri4ed by repetition and indirection+ C9 /inally, 'hitehead

sho#s ho# trauma fiction dra#s on both postmodernism K in its criti"ue of grand

narratives, foregrounding of memory, and testing of formal boundaries K and on

postcolonialism K for her ne# categorys *concern #ith the recovery of memory and

ac$no#ledgement of the denied, the repressed and the forgotten+ C82 !rauma, for

'hitehead, is the dominant mode both of real.#orld experience and literary expression

at the turn of the century %n 1hapter = of the present study % challenge some of the

tenets of trauma theory that underlie 'hiteheads thesis, including 1aruthian

belatedness

-nother thesis dra#ing on trauma theory, this time in order to exclusively address

olocaust representation, is proposed by Ernst van -lphen in Caught +y History:

Holocaust Effects in Contemorary Art, Literature, and TheoryC=??> @an -lphen

invo$es the more contentious assertion of 1aruth and others that trauma represents aliteral truth about the past, unmediated by the usual distortions of memory e #rites;

=?

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*'hereas a memory is clearly distinct from the event being remembered K it is the

memory of something K in the case of trauma, reality and representation are inseparable

!here is no distinction; the representation is the event+ C9H 1ombining this #ith

speech.act theory, van -lphen advances the argument that certain imaginative art#or$s

achieve *olocaust effects+ or performative *reenactments+ #hich enable the audience

to *$eep in touch+ #ith the past in an unmediated manner !his act is aresentation

rather than representation *'hen % call something a olocaust effect, % mean to say that

#e are not confronted #ith a representation of the olocaust, but that #e, as vie#ers or

readers, experience directly a certain aspect of the olocaust or of Ba4ism, of that

#hich led to the olocaust+ C=0 !he t#in problems highlighted by this approach K a

reliance on contested ideas about traumatic memory, and a tendency to over.identify

#ith the victims of the past K are explored in detail in the first t#o chapters of the

present study

othbergs Traumatic %ealismprovides a useful nuance to this debate !he ne#

category proposed by his title is described as not an *act of passive mimesis+, but rather

an *attempt to produce the traumatic event as an ob(ect of $no#ledge and to program

and thus transform its readers so that they are forced to ac$no#ledge their relationship

to posttraumatic culture+ C=09 !hus othberg seems to argue that traumatic realism

*produceFsG+ the event in the present rather than depicting it in the past, in an apparent

echo of van -lphens ideas of performative reenactment et othbergs only reference

to van -lphens boo$ is to critici4e its *vague and indefensible assertions about the

relationship of art to historical events+ C2>>, and to argue that *the notion that J#e can

reexperience the olocaust is absurd and dangerous+ C2>8 !his is because othbergs

concern is more pedagogic than personal 'hile van -lphens impetus is his o#n

childhood memory of stifled debate in post.#ar olland, othberg appears motivated

by a desire to *program+ readers #ith $no#ledge !his didactic impulse leads to an

attempt to corral the various movements of literary history into a productive

combination %n othbergs tripartite schema, olocaust literature responds to *a

demand for documentation, a demand for reflection on the formal limits of

representation, and a demand for the ris$y public circulation of discourses on the

events+ C> !hese three demands correspond in turn to realism C*strategies for referring

to and documenting the #orld+, modernism C#hich *"uestions its ability to documenthistory transparently+ and postmodernism C#hich *responds to the economic and

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political conditions of its emergence and public circulation+ C? *!raumatic realism+,

then, combines all three of these elements in variable amounts in order to respond to the

particular difficulties of olocaust representation Examples given by othberg include

#or$s by uth luger, -rt Spiegelman, and Philip oth

!hese monographs by @ice, 6anner, ing, van -lphen and othberg K not to mention

less theoretical examples such as 1hristopher 6igsbys%emem+ering and Imagining the

HolocaustC200H and Daniel Sch#ar4sImagining the HolocaustC=??? K have little

difficulty locating examples of *olocaust literature+ on #hich to comment et their

examples almost exclusively originate from outside the location of the original event,

and more pointedly, from the dispersed victim population rather than the perpetrator

collective %n contrast, Ernestine Schlants The Language of &ilence: )est (erman

Literature and the HolocaustC=??? is a comprehensive chronological survey of post.

#ar non.7e#ish 3erman authors #ho address the olocaust, and as her title implies,

Schlant finds their output less than helpful Dra#ing on /reuds theories of melancholy

and mourning, Schlant argues that there is a *silence+ in her ob(ects of study #hich

results from an authorial strategy Cperhaps unconscious of avoidance and omission

6ecause of this silence there has yet to be a proper *#or$ing through+ by the 3erman

people !he nature of the tas$ Schlant feels is necessary is revealed in her analysis of

' 3 Sebald, #hom she considers to have bro$en the pattern %n The Emigrants,

Schlant argues, Sebald *begins to mourn the destruction of 7e#s in 3ermany K a uni"ue

achievement in 3erman literature K and gives voice to the culture and the lives that #ere

destroyed ere, the language of silence is bro$en and a long.delayed melancholy

emerges+ C=?

Schlants analysis reveals the importance attached to the #ay those living many decades

later should *remember+ the olocaust and its victims Some have argued that this

temporal and generational distance has turned out to be helpful for understanding

Psychotherapist Dori aub has posited a *historical gap+ C*Event+ 8: a$in to the

latency experienced by some sufferers of post.traumatic stress disorder, in #hich only

no# can events previously met #ith silence be meaningfully apprehended Similarly,

Saul /riedlMnder offers a /reudian explanation;

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!he *generation of the grandchildren+, mainly among Europeans C3ermans inparticular but among 7e#s as #ell, has sufficient distance from the events interms of both the sheer passage of time and the lac$ of personal involvement to

be able to confront the full impact of the past !hus, the expansion of memoryof the Shoah could be interpreted as the gradual lifting, induced by the passage

of time, of collective repression C*istory+ 2>:

/riedlMnders argument brings together the t#in concerns of the t#entieth centurys

obsession #ith memory; the individual and the collective !heories of the individual

psyche stem not (ust from /reudian psychoanalysis but also from the philosophy of

enri 6ergson and the literary innovations of 5arcel Proust 5ean#hile, models of

*collective memory+ have been developed since 5aurice alb#achs mid.century

interventions by historians such as Pierre Bora and cultural critics li$e -ndreas uyssen

Cboth of #hom are dealt #ith in 1hapter 9 of the present study o#ever, there are

several other dimensions to contemporary interest in memory %n ans#er to the

"uestion of #hy people choose to remember a past in #hich they did not ta$e part,

several ans#ers present themselves 7e#ish tradition and religious practice has al#ays

emphasi4ed both remembering the experience of ones ancestors and understanding the

present as part of a continuum #ith the past Ca tendency fondly satiri4ed by /oer in

Everything is Illuminated, as % discuss in 1hapter

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nature of memory challenges more traditional historiographic modes that tend toappear static, transcendent, and naturali4ed 1lose attention to the operation ofmemory reminds us that all historical $no#ledge is relational, contingent, and*situated+ Cara#ayA in other #ords, history is shaped according to our presentneeds 5oreover, an a#areness that memory is partial, in the double sense of

being incomplete and sub(ective, creates slippages and gaps through #hichcontesting voices, or even silences, can emerge C=90

!his potential of memory to generate ne# #ays of thin$ing about the past has been a

strong influence on contemporary narratives of the olocaust %t is one of the paradoxes

of olocaust representation that those #ho cannot have direct memory of the event

nevertheless tend to dra# on it as a central metaphor, symbol, or other generative device

for their narratives !his is certainly the case in the examples dealt #ith in the present

study, for #hich % #ill no# attempt to define some categorical boundaries 'hile the

reductive nature of this must be ac$no#ledged, it may nevertheless help to clarify my

overall thesis and provide grounding for the chapters that follo#

%n the present study, then, % am considering post.=??0 European and Borth -merican

olocaust narratives, #ith a fictional element, by non.survivors !his last condition

seems to me the most significant 3iven the insoluble difficulties, alluded to above, of

separating prose narratives into genres of, for example, *fiction+ and *testimony+, the

distinction bet#een survivor.#itnesses and the rest is perhaps the only stable pillar left

for critics to hold on to %ndeed, this may explain #hyFragments, #ith its authors

claim to be a #itness #hen historical documents prove that he cannot possibly have

been so, has been considered so important by critics C% s$etch this response to the

*'il$omirs$i affair+ in 1hapter 9 5ean#hile, my decision to exclude survivors from

my purvie# is also an inevitable result of privileging contemporary examples, #ith

most #itnesses no# having died 5ore importantly, accounts by survivor.#itnesses

present their o#n particular problems regarding the boundaries bet#een fact and fiction,

or testimony and imagination, that are beyond the scope of the present study !he

"uestion of #hether Primo evisIf This Is a !anor Elie 'iesels$ightCboth =?

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%t is for similar reasons that % do not include examples from the burgeoning category of

*second generation+ olocaust narratives !his important group, examined in detail in

Efraim Sichers edited collection"rea-ing Crystal: )riting and !emory after

Ausch#itzC=??8, is usually restricted to boo$s by authors #hose parents #ere

olocaust survivors !hus #hile -nne 5ichaelsFugitive Piecesdeals #ith this topic,

it nevertheless #ould fall out of Sichers category by dint of its authors parentage

Else#here, in his %ntroduction toHolocaust $ovelistsC200:, Sicher has set out criteria

for this category based on the connection bet#een an authors biography, psychology

and output;

!he second generation feels an urgent need to transmit the testimony of theageing survivors to the next generation, both as carriers of memory and asfighters against olocaust denial !he generational transfer of posttraumaticmemory has given children of survivors the feeling of being maimed by history

before their births, and they have had to come to terms #ith a past of #hich theyhave no personal memory by imagining it creatively in novels, poetry and playsC*%ntroduction+ xvii

Sichers determining factor, *generational transfer of posttraumatic memory,+ reflects a

#idespread assumption that #ill be interrogated throughout the present study, especiallyin 1hapters = and

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the critic 3ilead 5orahg %n an article published in =???, 5orahg analyses the reasons

for the avoidance of the topic by %sraeli authors in the first decades after the #ar

-lthough a fe# novels appeared at this time, they tended to deal #ith the aftermath

rather than tac$le the ghetto or camp 5orahg argues that *it is li$ely that the prolonged

absence of the olocaust theme from the literature is not a manifestation of a general

national amnesia, but rather a specific conse"uence of a cultural code that controlled the

uses to #hich olocaust references could be put+ C:

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CHolocaust $ovelxiii Bevertheless, another strand has evolved that prefers to ground

its fiction in fact 7ean./ranRois Steiners Tre+lin-aC=?HH, -natolii usnetsovs"a+ii

;arC=?H>, !homas eneallys &chindler6s Ar-C=?82 and -lexander amatisAnd

The

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Sicher and ing both cite around a do4en examples of *postmodernist olocaust

fiction+ Some of those mentioned are Don Deillos satire )hite $oiseC=?8:, in

#hich the history of Ba4ism appears as (ust another commodity in a #orld of simulacraA

5artin -miss Time6s Arro#C=??=, #here time and history are narrated in reverseA

Emily Pragers allegoricalEve6s TattooC=??2, #hich satiri4es the modern culture of

memoriali4ation Cand #hich % discuss in 1hapter 2 of the present studyA 1hristopher

opes &erenity HouseC=??2, #hich dra#s parallels bet#een surveillance and tourism

in contemporary 'estern *civili4ed+ society and the recent Ba4i pastA obert arriss

counterfactualFatherlandC=??2, set in a =?H0s 3ermany #here itler has survived the

#ar and the disappearance of the 7e#s has gone unnoticedA and ' 3 Sebalds

AusterlitzC200=, #hich explores the legacy of the olocaust through the eyes of a

=indertransortsurvivor C#hich % analy4e in detail in 1hapter : Sicher also includes

5ichaelsFugitive Piecesin his list, and one #ould expect /oersEverything is

Illuminatedto be included in future surveys, particularly for its parody of olocaust

tourism !his suggests that the #or$s % have chosen for the present study are all in

some sense *postmodern+, raising the "uestion of #hether % #ill be interrogating them

in that light

'hile the lens of postmodernist thought has indeed been a productive tool for

understanding these texts, the present study #ill have a different focus 5y chief

emphasis is on the relationship bet#een the #riter and text in the present and the events

and victims of the past, and the ethical and epistemological problems this raises % am,

therefore, interested in post.=??0 non.survivor olocaust narratives from the 'est for

the narrative strategies they employ to foreground their engagement #ith these issues,

rather than the correlation bet#een these strategies and the *postmodern condition+ as

such 'hile recent prose narratives may or may not employ postmodern techni"ues,

#hat they have in common is a focus on the ethical problems of #riting and

remembering the olocaust from their standpoint of historical and generational

distance, #hile revealing their desire for connection #ith the past

%an 5cE#ans"lac- .ogsC=??2, for example, is a metafictional exploration of ho#

evil in the past is remembered in the present %ts present.day narrator, 7eremy,

underta$es to #rite a memoir of his mother.in.la#, 7une !remaine 7eremys first.person narrative about this pro(ect alternates #ith third.person episodes from 7unes life

2>

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in post.#ar England and /rance !he central transfiguring event of 7unes story, saved

until the end, is an encounter #ith t#o blac$ dogs during her honeymoon in =?:H Ln a

hillside path in /rance, briefly separated from her ne# husband, 7une is faced #ith the

hungry, snarling animals /ormerly a strict atheist K she and her husband are

communist intellectuals K 7une offers a prayer, has a vision of 3od, and miraculously

manages to fend off the dogs #ith a pen$nife ater, the local villagers say that the

dogs are left behind from the 3erman occupation, and that they had been trained by the

3estapo to attac$ and even rape #omen !he significance of 7unes encounter is

t#ofold; her subse"uent belief in spiritualism drives a #edge bet#een 7une and her

arch.materialist husbandA and the blac$ dogs come to signify for her the embodiment of

evil that perpetually lur$s belo# the surface of European civili4ation, and #hich may

reappear at any time !hus evil is figured as resistant to rational explanation K its

effects are felt on more instinctual levels %n a present.day episode, 7eremy visits the

former concentration camp at 5a(dane$ #ith a #oman he has (ust met at a conference

!heir reaction to the horror they feel is a life.affirming three.day bout of lovema$ing

!he connection bet#een present.day 5a(dane$ and the memory of Ba4i atrocities in

/rance is thus embodied not in 7une but in 7eremy, #hose narration is revealed as a self.

reflexive examination of his o#n motives in investigating the lives of earlier

generations %n effect, 5cE#ans novel ta$es on the form of memoir, metafictionally

ac$no#ledging the importance of this genre to olocaust literature, #hile also

foregrounding the gulf bet#een generations in ho# the past is apprehended

- similar concern informs elen Darvilles The Hand That &igned the PaerC=??:, a

novel #hich explores U$rainian collaboration #ith the Ba4is from the perspective of the

niece of a man indicted for #ar crimes in present.day -ustralia %n addition to this

framing narrative, in #hich /iona ovalen$o helps her elderly uncle @italy get legal

representation Cthough he dies before the trial begins, the story of @italys youth in

=?90s and =?:0s Europe is presented @italy and his family are brutali4ed by Stalins

imposition of communism, ma$ing them ripe for recruitment to the Ba4i cause @italy

(oins the 'affen SS and serves at !reblin$a, $illing daily, #hile his sister aterina

becomes the mistress of a Ba4i officer -fter the #ar the ovalen$os are reunited at

Displaced Persons camps in %taly before being resettled in Surrey, and eventually ta$ing

up permanent residentship in -ustralia %n this novel, the psychology of violence andracial hatred is intimately explored, #ith the narrative conveying a po#erful suggestion

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that social marginali4ation, hunger and ignorance are more important factors than race

or ideology *!he brothers ovalen$o and their comrades K Bi$olai and Shura K did

not $ill 7e#s (ust because they #ere poor and U$rainian, and did not $no# any better

!hey $illed 7e#s because they believed that they themselves #ere savages+ C>>

o#ever, the lac$ of an authoritative narrator Cthe #artime story is focali4ed through

several characters, U$rainian and 3erman leads to a suspicion of moral e"uivocation

/iona as$s @italy if he is sorry for the past, but he gives no clear ans#er /iona herself

refuses to condemn the actions of her forebears, instead concentrating on shielding her

family from harm !his boo$ thus addresses the difficult "uestion of ho# descendants

should approach the actions of a previous generation #hose choices #ere radically

unli$e our o#n !he scandal that surrounded its publication only reinforces this theme

The Hand That &igned the Paer#as originally published under the pseudonym *elen

Demiden$o+, the similarity to the narrators name *ovalen$o+ implying that it #as a

disguised account of the authors o#n family history !his impression #as further

supported by her behaviour during the boo$s publicity, in #hich she dressed up in

U$rainian clothing !he author #as soon unmas$ed as an -ustralian of -nglo.Saxon

extraction, but not before she had #on three literary pri4es %n her chapter on this novel

inHolocaust Fiction, @ice lists the elements of the *Demiden$o affair+ as *alleged

plagiarism, antisemitism, inauthenticity, appropriation, historical revisionism, FandG

mas"uerade+ C=:2

@ice also notes ho# the boo$ led to, or coincided #ith, problems bet#een the 7e#ish

and U$rainian communities in -ustralia, and ho# it #as condemned for *humani4ing+

perpetrators a1apra is one critic #ho has critici4ed giving a voice to perpetrators,

arguing that it creates *an ob(ectionable Cor at best deeply e"uivocal $ind of discomfort

or unease in the reader or vie#er by furthering fascination and a confused sense of

identification #ith or involvement in certain figures and their beliefs or actions in a

manner that may #ell subvert (udgment and critical response+ C)riting202.9

a1apra cites 3eorge SteinersPortage to &an Crist>+al of A? H? C=?8=, #hich dares to

focali4e itler, and 6ernhard Schlin$s.er

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before ma$ing love !heir liaison ends Eight years later, 5ichael, no# a la# student,

#itnesses annas trial for #ar crimes, discovering that she #as a Ba4i guard #ho

allo#ed a group of 7e#ish #omen to burn to death in a church 5ichael also belatedly

realises that anna is illiterate, and that this disability has to an extent shaped her life

choices %t emerges that anna got 7e#ish #omen to read to her before she sent them to

the gas chamber 'as this an act of compassion, or did she send them to the chamber to

protect her secret) !he narrative does not ma$e this clear, but anna is (udged guilty

by the court and sentenced to life imprisonment ater, 5ichael begins to send anna

recordings of himself reading aloud, through #hich she cures her illiteracy by

comparing the tapes #ith boo$s in the prison library !he day before her planned

release, anna commits suicide 5ichael tries to give the money he inherits from

anna to a 7e#ish survivor, #ho refuses %nstead he donates it to a charity specialising

in illiteracy !hus the theme of this novel K 3ermanys difficulty in coming to terms

#ith its past K is figured through the metaphor of illiteracy and its *cure+ 5ichael is

innocent yet becomes complicit through his status as *reader+, that is, through his

interaction #ith a perpetrator, anna, #ho is in turn the embodiment of 5ichaels Cand

3ermanys obscure sense of guilt Schlin$s narrative subtly addresses important

themes including the difficulty of (udgement, the unreliability of evidence, and the

problem of assigning guilt and responsibility in an ambiguous moral universe !he

same concerns are found in achel Seifferts The .ar- %oomC200=, #hose third

section in particular is a moving and thought.provo$ing examination of a contemporary

3ermans obsession #ith #hat his grandfather may have done in the #ar -s such %

briefly discuss Seifferts novel in 1hapter < in relation to /oersEverything is

Illuminated, #hose plot similarly hinges on the secrets $ept by the previous generation

but one %ndeed, this perspective of attempting to address the past through personal

familial connections, #hose lives nevertheless too$ place at an irreducible distance from

ones o#n, both temporally and metaphorically, seems to me a highly useful #ay to

generate transgenerational empathy

6efore addressing these texts, and exploring ho# they enact transgenerational empathy

in narrative, % turn to the topic of trauma theory, in order to evaluate #hat contribution

this field can ma$e to understanding olocaust memory in contemporary narratives

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Chapter #

Moving eyond notions of literal truth and the elated sulime: the historical$

political and clinical controversies of trauma

!o #hat extent are contemporary olocaust narratives analogous to, comparable #ith,

or even attributable to *traumatic memory+) 1onversely, ho# useful is this

phenomenon as a tool #ith #hich to gain insight into the #or$ings of such narratives)

-ccording to Shoshana /elman, *!he t#entieth century can be defined as a century of

trauma+ C*uridical=>= n= 6ut does that mean that trauma should be the only or

central concept #ith #hich to analy4e and understand that century and its

representations) !his chapter #ill investigate the origins and debates of *trauma

theory+ in order to assess its usefulness and relevance to contemporary olocaust

narratives

!he #ord trauma, #hich comes from the 3ree$ for #ound, has been associated #ith

physical in(ury since the late seventeenth century %t did not ma$e the transition to study

of the mind until t#o hundred years later, #hen, in =88?, *traumatic neurosis+ and

*traumatic psychosis+ made their first appearances in print Cattributed to theneurologists ermann Lppenheim and 7ean.5artin 1harcot respectively9 !his

transition from the physiological to the psychological sphere is #orth bearing in mind

#hen considering the multiple meanings of trauma today !he association brings ideas

of violence, laceration and pain, #hich contribute to the po#er the term carries in

contemporary discourse !he connection also implies that psychological trauma is

caused by an external source /reud #rote in *6eyond the Pleasure Principle+ C=?20

that traumas are *those excitations from outside that are strong enough to brea$ throughthe protective barrier+ of consciousness CH8 6ut traumais also etymologically

connected to the 3erman #ord traum, meaning both dreamand nightmare, suggesting

the role of internal factors in the aetiology of symptoms %ndeed, this problem of inside

versus outside is crucial to an understanding of the controversies surrounding trauma

'hether the memory of a trauma refers to a real event, something imagined, or

9*trauma+ and *traumatic+ 7ford English .ictionary 2nded =?8?

*traumatic neurosis+ nA .ictionary of Psychology -ndre# 5 1olman Lxford University Press, =??H7ford %eference 7nline Lxford University Press Exeter University -ccessed < -ug2008 Thttp;II###oxfordreferencecomIvie#sIEB!html)subvie#5ainVentryt8>e8

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something in bet#een, is the central difficulty informing not (ust medico.legal issues

li$e *false memory syndrome+ but also the critical discourse $no#n as *trauma theory+

or *trauma studies+

!he foundation on #hich trauma studies are based is the symptomatology of shoc$ing

events Since the nineteenth century, various terms have been offered to describe the

symptoms presented by victims of train crashes, trench #arfare, concentration camps,

sexual violence, and other horrifying experiences Descriptions such as *fright

neurosis+, *#arIcombat neurosis+, *shell shoc$+, *survivor syndrome+ and

*concentration camp syndrome+ have all fallen into disuse or become historici4ed

Bo#adays, *Post.!raumatic Stress Disorder+ C*P!SD+ has become the ubi"uitous

diagnosis for everyone from hostages and rape victims to survivors of car crashes and

returnees from #ar 4ones !his gathering together of disparate groups relies on certain

assumptions about memory #hich originate in the late nineteenth century but have

become more pervasive since =?80 !he most important of these is the theory of

dissociation -s uth eys explains in Trauma: A (enealogyC2000;

Post.traumatic stress disorder is fundamentally a disorder of memory !he idea

is that, o#ing to the emotions of terror and surprise caused by certain events, themind is split or dissociated; it is unable to register the #ound to the psychebecause the ordinary mechanisms of a#areness and cognition are destroyed -sa result, the victim is unable to recollect and integrate the hurtful experience innormal consciousnessA instead, she is haunted or possessed by intrusivetraumatic memories !he experience of the trauma, fixed or fro4en in time,refuses to be represented aspast, but is perpetually reexperienced in a painful,dissociated, traumatic present -ll the symptoms characteristic of P!SD Kflashbac$s, nightmares and other reexperiences, emotional numbing, depression,guilt, autonomic arousal, explosive violence or tendency to hypervigilance K arethought to be the result of this fundamental mental dissociation C2

!his psychological diagnostic has proved highly suggestive for a #ide range of

discourses, including political science, sociology, philosophy and history !rauma has

been used variously as a model #ith #hich to analyse historical process, interpret the

testimony of survivor.victims, explain the passing on of experience through

generations, and describe the collective memory of societies Unsurprisingly, given this

intellectual climate, trauma has also emerged as a ma(or theme for #riters of fiction,

memoir and other narrative literature Simultaneously it has been ta$en up by literarycritics and thence to the realm of critical theory

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o#ever, if the concept of trauma has moved from physiology to psychology, and from

psychology to a range of other discourses, its meaning may be slippery and uncertain

%ndeed, even #ithin the field of psychology there are fundamental disagreements

6efore coming to these, ho#ever, it may be useful to survey briefly the cultural and

clinical history of trauma 1ontroversy in recent times has often centred on the #ay

earlier #ritings have been interpreted

%n Traumatic Pasts: History, Psychiatry, and Trauma in the !odern AgeC200=, editors

5icale and erner put the emergence of psychological trauma firmly in the context of

cultural modernity !hey identify four distinct developments of the period =8>0.=?90

that helped shape the concept; the spread of rail#ays, the advent of accident insurance

in the nascent #elfare state, the rise of psychological psychiatry, and 'orld 'ar %

%ndeed, a good starting point for any history of trauma is the emergence of rail#ay

travel in the mid.nineteenth century, and the concurrent phenomenon of the train crash

alph arrington explains ho# rail#ay accidents focussed attention on unusual medical

disorders;

%n mid. and late.nineteenth.century medical and medico.legal discourse, rail#ayaccidents ac"uired a highly significant role as agents of traumatic experience/e# events in ordinary civilian life could e"ual the rail#ay accident forviolence, terror, and destruction, and it is unsurprising that this event, the

product of industriali4ed modernity, should be seen as capable of bringing aboutne#, insidious, highly disruptive forms of in(ury and disorder in the human

body Such perceptions found full expression in response to the Jrail#ay spinephenomenon, #hich #as characteri4ed by the manifestation of a variety ofphysical disorders in rail#ay accident victims #ho had apparently suffered nosignificant organic in(ury C20?

%n the absence of discernible *organic in(ury+, then, doctors and others began to theori4e

a connection bet#een the shoc$ suffered by the mind and the physical symptoms

presented by the victim arrington argues that #hile the study of *rail#ay spine+ in

the =8H0s has hitherto been considered the first instance of this *concept of strong

emotion producing organic disorders+, in fact *a tradition of surgical en"uiry along

those lines existed in the =820s and =890s+ C2=H Bevertheless, mid.nineteenth century

society #as resistant to claims of a causal connection bet#een mind and body -s

arrington explains, early legal compensation claims brought by rail crash victims

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tended to rest on a distinction bet#een mere emotional or *moral+ reaction and a

*nervous shoc$+ that #as *organic+ in natureA proof of the latter #as necessary for

individuals to #in against the rail#ay companies %t #as not until later in the century

that neurologists and psychotherapists such as 1harcot, Pierre 7anet, and, later, Sigmund

/reud, began to assert the existence of psychological trauma, though the cases they

examined #ere so.called *hysterical+ symptoms in #omen -s eys notes in her

%ntroduction, 1harcot and 7anet theori4ed a *#ounding+ of the mind o#ing to a sudden

shoc$, and used *hypnotic catharsis+ to treat the resulting *memory crisis+ or

dissociation C: Else#here, 7anet has been called the *the first to identify dissociation

as the crucial psychological mechanism involved in the genesis of a #ide variety of post

traumatic symptoms+ Cvan der ol$, *Pierre 7anet+ 9HH, and *the first to describe the

memory disturbances that accompany traumati4ation+ C9H?

o#ever, such theories of the unconscious mind too$ a long time to become

mainstream %ndeed, the diagnostic reaction to returning soldiers from 'orld 'ar %

echoed the response to *rail#ay spine+, by attributing their symptoms to physical

concussion of the spine caused by exploding shells Chence the term *shell shoc$+,

coined by 1harles Stanley 5yers in =?=

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affections #as thus unluc$ily lost K though, #e must add, the early recurrence of such

an opportunity is not a thing to be desired+ C20>

Bevertheless, some doctors attempted a more enlightened approach to shell shoc$ or

#ar neurosis during the #ar eys cites 'illiam 6ro#n, #ho thought that the

symptoms resulted from repressed emotion, that is, the necessity for soldiers to maintain

self.control and discipline in the face of emotionally affecting horrors !hus 6ro#ns

treatment involved hypnotic cathartic or *abreaction+, an emotional acting out similar to

modern *psychodynamic+ therapy Ceys 8:.9

5ean#hile, the tendency to recommend $eeping a stiff upper lip in the face of trauma,

#hich ivers identified as unhelpful, led to some extreme forms of treatment 1anadian

neurologist e#is ealland, for example, combined verbal chastisement #ith electro.

shoc$ therapy /reud, in his -ppendix to *5emorandum on the Electrical !reatment of

'ar Beurotics+ C=?20, reflected on ho# such methods came to be (ustified e noted

the logic of the vie# that if #ar neurosis resulted from a mental conflict bet#een, on the

one hand, an *unconscious inclination+ C2=2 to #ithdra# from the horrific demands of#ar Cself.preservation, and on the other, *motives F G such as ambition, self.esteem,

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patriotism, the habit of obedience and the example of others+ C2=9, electrical treatment

might persuade the soldier that the pain it involved #as #orse than the horror of

returning to the front %ndeed, this method met #ith initial success o#ever, /reud

argues that bac$ at the trenches, those horrors #ould again become uppermost in the

patients mind and bring bac$ the neurosis /or /reud this proves that *the

psychotherapeutic method introduced by me+ C2=

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*Posttraumatic Stress Disorder+ in the !hird Edition of the -merican Psychiatric

-ssociations.iagnostic and &tatistical !anual of !ental .isordersC.&!@III C=?80

!he most important aspect of this ne# category of disorder #as that it made a traumatic

eventa necessary causal factor /or the first time it #as officially recogni4ed that the

horrific occurrences #itnessed and perpetrated by practitioners of modern #arfare could

cause them psychiatric problems, regardless of previous mental state or genetic

predisposition eactions to this development #ere mixed, as ichard 5cBally has

pointed out; *'hile many applauded the ne# diagnosis as finally giving a voice to

survivors of trauma, others "uestioned its validity, seeing it as a political artifact of the

anti#ar movement+ C%emem+ering= Bevertheless the attitude that sees trauma as

something from outside that assails an un#illing victim has become the ne# orthodoxy

o#ever, a historical overvie# of official reactions to soldiers trauma sho#s that the

issue of externalIinternal aetiology is more complicated -s #e have seen, the first

reaction of military authorities to soldiers brea$ing do#n during 'orld 'ar % #as to

assume that a physical cause K the concussions of exploding shells affecting the spine K

#ere to blame %n comparison, the history of *3ulf 'ar Syndrome+, as suffered by

veterans of the US.led conflict in %ra" in =??0, sho#s ho# far attitudes have changed

Symptoms of this condition include fatigue, memory problems and, later, terminal

tumours and permanent neurological damage /red 5ilano, in an article published in

International &ocial &cience %evie#in 2000, explains ho# the authorities dealt #ith the

issue at the time;

-t first, the military attributed Fthe soldiers symptomsG to *stress+ Post.!raumatic Stress Disorder CP!SD #as #ell.documented in @ietnam, and itscrippling effects are still evident several decades after the #ar %t provided a

convenient culprit, one already familiar to the general public C=?

So, the immediate response to the problem #as to focus not on the nature of the #ar

itself but on the psychology of soldiers ater, in =??H, the -merican Psychiatric

-ssociation published a sympathetic volume on the psychiatric fall.out of the #ar,

bolstered by a fore#ord by the politician Dic$ 1heney:

:Ursano, obert 7 and -nn E Bor#ood CedsEmotional Aftermath of the Persian (ulf )ar:

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et this response #as also seen as politically motivated evasion -s 5ilano says,

*veterans #ere not buying itA they had seen this shell game before+ C=? e explains

ho# allegations emerged that the symptoms of 3ulf 'ar Syndrome #ere caused not by

the normal stresses of #ar but by the combined effects of multiple vaccinations and

anti.nerve gas pills, the spraying of organophosphate pesticides on military tents, and

the use of depleted uranium shells !hese allegations are controversial and sub(ect to

ongoing debate and investigation, by, for example, the esearch -dvisory 1ommittee

on 3ulf 'ar @eterans %llnesses in the United States Bevertheless, the case illustrates

ho# meanings of trauma are both historically contingent and politically motivated !he

distance #e have come from denying the psychological nature of shell shoc$ to using

P!SD as an excuse for Callegedly chemically induced 3ulf 'ar Syndrome suggests

that trauma is a changeable political tool rather than a stable and definable phenomenon

%n Trauma and %ecovery: From .omestic A+use to Political TerrorC=??:, 7udith

e#is erman argues that the history of trauma has been politically determined from

the beginning She contends that the initial study of hysteria by 1harcot and 7anet

*gre# out of the republican, anticlerical political movement of the late nineteenth

century in /rance+, #hile for both shell shoc$ and P!SD, the *political context #as the

collapse of a cult of #ar and the gro#th of an anti.#ar movement+ C? ermans

purpose in this historico.political contextualisation of trauma is to shift the agenda from

preoccupation #ith *male+ activities li$e #arfare to#ards *female+ issues such as rape

and domestic abuse /or erman, the post.=?H0s 'estern feminist movement has

revealed a *combat neurosis of the sex #ar+ C28 that should claim our attention and

lead to systemati4ed attempts at healing !hat this has not yet occurred is attributed to

societys #ilful turning a#ay from such issues and refusal to face the *truth+; *'hen

the truth is finally recogni4ed, survivors can begin their recovery 6ut far too often

secrecy prevails F G+ C= 7enny Ed$ins, in Trauma and the !emory of Politics

C2009, sees such *secrecy+ as the direct result of *sovereign po#er, the po#er of the

modern nation.state+ She goes on; *Sovereign po#er produces and is itself produced

by trauma; it provo$es #ars, genocides and famines 6ut it #or$s by concealing its

involvement and claiming to be a provider not a destroyer of security+ Cxv /or Ed$ins

this means that trauma results not (ust from violence or threats to the integrity of the

self, but specifically #hen that threat comes from a previously trusted source;

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'hat #e call trauma ta$es place #hen the very po#ers that #e are convinced#ill protect us and give us security become our tormentors; #hen thecommunity of #hich #e considered ourselves members turns against us or #henour family is no longer a source of refuge but a site of danger C:

i$e erman, Ed$ins implies that trauma is caused by secrecy and treachery, rather than

the physical act of violence as such -gain li$e erman, she places abuse of #omen as

central *!he modern state cannot be assumed to be a place of safety, any more than the

patriarchal family can Political abuse in one parallels sexual abuse in the other 6oth

give rise to #hat #e call symptoms of trauma+ C>

-nother important example of the implications of trauma for society and politics is the

controversy over so.called *recovered memories+ ichard 5cBally, in his chapter on

*!he Politics of !rauma+ in%emem+ering TraumaC2009, describes ho# this unfolded

%n the United States in the =?80s, some psychologists claimed that extremely high

percentages of #omen had been sexually abused in childhood, and that repressed

traumatic memories of this abuse could be recovered using hypnotherapy -t the same

time, 5cBally documents, *child #elfare #or$ers #ere claiming to have discovered

#idespread current abuse of children in daycare centers+ C> !hese developments led

to many la#suits and care home sac$ings %n response, the /alse 5emory Syndrome/oundation C/5S/ #as set up in =??2 by a group of accused parents !his

organisation argued, #ith bac$ing from scientists in the field, *that therapeutic

techni"ues Fincluding hypnosisG designed to recover hidden memories of trauma often

result in the inadvertent creation of psychologically compelling but false memories of

abuse+ C=:.=

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5cBally documents a related incident that illustrates further ho# political trauma has

become %n =??8, an article

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must involve *direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened

death or serious in(ury, or other threat to ones physical integrity+, or, e"ually,

*#itnessing+ such an event, or even merely *learning about+ its happening to a loved

one C.&!@I

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P!SD patients have relatively poor intentional recall of the traumatic event!heir narratives of the event tend to be fragmented and disorgani4ed 'ithsuccessful treatment, the narratives become elaborated and organi4ed !heseobservations have led to the hypothesis that insufficient elaboration of the eventand its meaning leads to the re.experiencing symptoms of P!SD

-utobiographical memories are normally organi4ed in a #ay that preventstriggering of very vivid and emotional re.experiencing of an event ecall isdriven by themes and personal time periods, and it is relatively abstract Ehlersand 1lar$ suggested that re.experiencing in P!SD occurs because the traumamemory is inade"uately lin$ed to its context in time, place, and otherautobiographical memories Stimuli that resemble those present during thetraumatic event can thus trigger vivid memories and strong emotional responsesthat are experienced as if the event #as happening right no# C>H:

@arious treatments have been suggested for this dissociative state, including drugs,

hypnotherapy, and 1ognitive.6ehavioural !herapy C16! 16! involves exposing the

patient to the source or site of the trauma, both literally and by #ay of the imagination

!his *repeated reliving of the event helps Fthe patientG to create an organised memory

and facilitates the distinction that intrusive thoughts and images are memories rather

than something happening right no#+ C$7TP>H>

o#ever, the most popular treatment approach is referred to variously by the textboo$s

as *tal$ing cure+, *#or$ing through+ or *testimony+ %n a typical formulation, itinvolves going over the *trauma story+ in order *to rehearse the trauma and rea#a$en

associated emotions+, #ith the aim of achieving *habituation+ to them CToP22:

Descended from /reudian psychoanalysis, this process of #or$ing.through re"uires the

presence of a listener or therapist Dori aub, a olocaust survivor, psychotherapist and

co.founder of the /ortunoff @ideo -rchive for olocaust !estimonies at ale

University, ta$es this theory to its extreme in his contributions to Testimony: Crises of

)itnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and HistoryC=??2 %n his chapter *6earing'itness, or the @icissitudes of istening+, aub argues that as a listener to olocaust

survivors, he is *the enabler of testimony+ C

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precludes its registrationA the observing and recording mechanisms of the human mind

are temporarily $noc$ed out, malfunction+ C aubs theory suggests that the

explanation for traumatic *flashbac$s+ is that the mind is unable to cope #ith certain

experiences, fails to *register+ them as memories, and instead confronts the survivor

#ith a repeat of the experience that can only be transformed into a memory through the

act of testimony !raumatic flashbac$s, in this analysis, are hardly memories at all, at

least in the usual sense of temporally mediated recollections ather, they are instances

of the literal return of the event itself

!his vie# is shared by 6essel - van der ol$, a clinical psychologist #hose #ritings

on trauma in the early =??0s have proved highly influential ol$s theories are dra#n

from his study of the previously largely forgotten nineteenth century psychotherapist

Pierre 7anet 7anet made a distinction bet#een *narrative memory+ and *automatic

synthesis+ or *habit memory+ Cno#adays usually $no#n as *implicit memory+ 'hile

#e share habit memory #ith animals, narrative memory is uni"uely human 7anet

thought that extreme experiences resist *integration+ into narrative memory, *#hich

causes the memory of these experiences to be stored differently and not be available for

retrieval under ordinary conditionsA it becomes dissociated from conscious a#areness

and voluntary control+ Cvan der ol$, *%ntrusive Past+ =H0 ol$ claims that as a result

of this dissociation, traumatic memories are not sub(ect to the usual process of distortion

and inaccuracy over time, nor are they contaminated by sub(ective meaning, re.

interpretation, or elaboration %nstead they are *engraved+ on the mind, and as such

represent a literal, unassailable truth about the past !raumatic memories, the

*unassimilated scraps of over#helming experience+ C=>H, are *inflexible and

invariable+ C=H9

o#ever, collecting up scraps of experience and transforming them into narrative does

not necessarily re"uire the memories to be traumatic as such Prousts *madeleine+ is a

case in point *5Qmoire involontaire+ is, for Proust, the mechanism that triggers

recollection of the pastA voluntary or intellectual effort is al#ays doomed to fail 'alter

6en(amin notes that this involuntary memory Can adaptation of 6ergsons *mQmoire

pure+ refers to *only #hat has not been experienced explicitly and consciously, #hat

has not happened to the sub(ect as an experience+ C= !his is reminiscent of aubsidea that *massive trauma precludes its registrationA the observing and recording

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mechanisms of the human mind are temporarily $noc$ed out+, and of ol$s assertion

that traumatic experience *becomes dissociated from conscious a#areness and

voluntary control+ 6ut Proust #as #riting about the return of untraumatic childhood

memories, #hich nevertheless eluded him before returning in the same po#erful manner

as *massive trauma+ is supposed by this theory to do, before being re.integrated into his

life story in the form of la %echerche du Tems Perdu

!o #hat extent, then, is involuntary memory inherently traumatic) /or 1athy 1aruth,

trauma is central to all $inds of memory and indeed to experience in general 1aruth

ta$es the ideas of non.registration Caub and undistorted truth Col$ into the realm of

critical theory, exploring their implications for history and memory %n a #idely "uoted

formulation from her %ntroduction to Trauma: Elorations in !emoryC=??

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trauma into the realm of history, arguing that events only gain their force from the

temporal delay #ith #hich they are experienced;

!he historical po#er of the trauma is not (ust that the experience is repeated afterits forgetting, but that it is only in and through its inherent forgetting that it isfirst experienced at all F G /or history to be a history of a trauma means thatit is referential precisely to the extent that it is not fully perceived as it occursA orto put it some#hat differently, that a history can only be grasped in the veryinaccessibility of its occurrence C8

/or this argument 1aruth relies on /reuds!oses and !onotheismC=?9?, a text #hose

importance she argues has been Ctraumatically) forgotten %n this, his last ma(or #or$,

/reud attempted to re#rite the history of the 7e#ish people in terms of traumatic

latency e argued that the source of 7e#ish monotheism is the hitherto concealed truth

that 5oses #as an Egyptian, one #ho became influenced by the monotheistic *-ton+

religion that #as favoured by a short.lived Pharaoh -fter leading the Exodus, /reud

hypothesi4es, 5oses #as eventually murdered in a revolt o#ever, the memory of his

leadership and his monotheistic ideas resurfaced generations later, (ust as the

descendants of 5oses 7e#s #ere accepting 7ahve as their 3od;

!he religion of 5oses F G had not perished - sort of memory of it hadsurvived, obscured and distorted F G %t #as this tradition of a great past thatcontinued to exert its effect from the bac$groundA it slo#ly attained more andmore po#er over the minds of the people, and at last succeeded in changing the3od 7ahve into the 3od of 5oses and in bringing again to life the abandonedreligion 5oses had instituted centuries ago C=?H

%n order to bac$ up this revolutionary claim, /reud proposes a psychological analogy

that har$s bac$ to the lin$ bet#een trauma and rail#ay accidents first made eighty years

earlier;

%t may happen that someone gets a#ay from, apparently unharmed, the spot#here he has suffered a shoc$ing accident, for instance a train collision %n thecourse of the follo#ing #ee$s, ho#ever, he develops a series of grave psychicaland motor symptoms, #hich one can ascribe only to his shoc$ or #hatever elsehappened at the time of the accident e has developed a *traumatic neurosis+!his appears "uite incomprehensible and is therefore a novel fact !he time thatelapsed bet#een the accident and the first appearance of the symptoms is calledthe *incubation period+, a transparent allusion to the pathology of infectiousdisease -s an afterthought #e observe that K in spite of the fundamentaldifference in the t#o cases, the problem of the traumatic neurosis and that of

:

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7e#ish 5onotheism K there is a correspondence in one point %t is the feature#hich one might term latency !here are the best grounds for thin$ing that inthe history of the 7e#ish religion there is a long period K after the brea$ing a#ayfrom the 5oses religion K during #hich no trace is to be found of themonotheistic idea, the condemnation of ceremonial and the emphasis on the

ethical side !hus #e are prepared for the possibility that the solution of ourproblem is to be sought in a special psychological situation C=0?.=0

/reud goes on to re(ect this analogy as inade"uate to explain his monotheism

hypothesis, instead falling bac$ on his abiding interest in childhood neuroses %n this he

alludes to the more complex idea of$achtr9glich-eit -nne 'hitehead explains ho#

$achtr9glich-eitinforms 1aruths thought;

/or /reud, the concept refers to the #ays in #hich certain experiences,impressions and memory traces are revised at a later date in order to correspond#ith fresh experiences or #ith the attainment of a ne# stage of development/reuds conception involves a radical rethin$ing of the causality and temporalityof memory !he traumatic incident is not fully ac$no#ledged at the time that itoccurs and only becomes an eventat some later point of intense emotional crisis1aruths understanding of trauma re#or$s *deferred action+ as belatedness andmodels itself on /reuds conception of the non.linear temporal relation to the

past CH

o#ever, this interpretation of$achtr9glich-eitis arguably a distortion of /reudsmeaning 'hitehead and 1aruths account posits the occurrence of an initial *traumatic

incident+, but for /reud, the trauma arises rather through the connectionbet#een t#o

separate moments in time -s eys explains, in /reuds conception of$achtr9glich-eit,

trauma #as constituted by a relationship bet#een t#o events or experiences K afirst event that #as not necessarily traumatic because it came too early in thechilds development to be understood and assimilated, and a second event that

also #as not inherently traumatic but that triggered a memory of the first eventthat only then #as given traumatic meaning and hence repressed C20

!his is rather different from the idea of belated possession by traumatic memories

eys critici4es 1aruth for selective "uoting of /reud to construct ne# meaning from his

ideas /or eys, 1aruths interpretation of$achtr9glich-eitis *stripped of the idea of

the retroactive conferral of meaning on past sexual experiences and reduced instead to

the idea of literal if belated repetition of the traumatic event+ C2>0.=

:H

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!his, % #ould argue, results from 1aruths reliance on ol$s theory of the literal truth

of *flashbac$+ traumatic memories -s discussed above, ol$ asserts that traumatic

events are not remembered in the usual #ay, but instead are dissociated from normal

thought, and return *intrusively+ of their o#n accord %n%emem+ering Trauma,

5cBally see$s to "uestion this entire frame of reference, #hich relies on t#in

assumptions of dissociation and forgetting Synthesi4ing clinical psychology, cognitive

neuroscience and developmental psychology, 5cBally ma$es three counter.assertions

to the orthodoxy of trauma;

/irst, people remember horrific experiences all too #ell @ictims are seldomincapable of remembering their trauma Second, people sometimes do not thin$

about disturbing events for long periods of time, only to be reminded of themlater o#ever, events that are experienced as over#helmingly traumatic at thetime of their occurrence rarely slip from a#areness !hird, there is no reason to

postulate a special mechanism of repression or dissociation to explain #hypeople may not thin$ about disturbing experiences for long periods - failure tothin$ about something does not entail an inability to remember it Camnesia C2

!his argument implicitly challenges the 7anetian idea that traumatic memories are

*stored+ differently from other recollections 5oreover, 5cBallys criticism

undermines the central concept of dissociation, not#ithstanding its appearance in

psychiatric textboo$s !he field, it #ould seem, is far from unified

- further problem of ol$s argument is his reliance on 7anets concept of *narrative

memory+ 7anet considered remembering to be a *creative act+ C"td in van der ol$,

*Pierre 7anet+ 9H8 in #hich #e assemble *the chapters in our personal history+ during

an *action of telling a story+ C"td in van der ol$, *%ntrusive Past+ =>H !his

argument assumes a linear temporality to memory, #hich has been critici4ed by, for

example, the philosopher %an ac$ing %n%e#riting the &oul: !ultile Personality and

the &ciences of !emoryC=??

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ma$es a flashbac$ something #hose very nature is different from other memory6ut if recollection is to be compared to thin$ing of scenes and episodes Canddescribing or narrating them on occasion, then it is not intrinsically differentfrom other remembering !here is no reason to believe that the flashbac$experience is better at getting at the unvarnished truth than any other type of

remembering C2 Ulrich 6aer echoes

this and, adding the aub idea of non.registration, argues that, li$e the *pu44lingly

accurate imprinting on the mind of an over#helming reality+ found in trauma,

photography provides a *mechanically recorded instant that #as not necessarily

registered by the sub(ects o#n consciousness+ C8 o#ever, this line of thin$ing,

#hile potentially productive for the study of photography, is less helpful in explaining

ho# memory #or$s Beurological science has moved on since /reuds hypothetical

metaphors, and #ould be unli$ely to compare the simple mechanics of a camera #ith

the complexities of the human brain

et another problem #ith the distinction bet#een *flashbac$s+ and other types of

memory lies in its therapeutic aspect ol$ argues that 7anets purpose in defining

narrative memory #as to enable those suffering dissociative states to re.integrate their

intrusive memories and thereby achieve psychic health o#ever, eys contends that

this interpretation relies on a highly selective reading of 7anet She sho#s that the

apparent desire to convert *traumatic memory+ into *narrative memory+ is contradicted

in other papers by 7anet #hich instead advocate *excision+, *acceptation+ and*resignation+ %ndeed, eys interprets 7anets corpus as emphasi4ing not the healing of

:8

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trauma but its forgetting She argues that *for 7anet, narrated recollection #as

insufficient for the cure - supplementary action #as re"uired, one that involved a

process of *li"uidation+ that, terminologically, sounded suspiciously li$e *exorcism+ or

*forgetting+ C==H

!he contradictions of 7anets #or$ are, eys argues, echoed throughout the history of

therapeutic approaches to trauma /or eys, notions of trauma have al#ays been, and

continue to be, inherently unstable, o#ing to a constant oscillation bet#een *mimetic+

and *anti.mimetic+ approaches !he mimetic vie# of trauma, she explains, assumes the

testifying victim to have an element of unreliability, because his or her memory is a

hypnotic imitation or process of *acting out+ 5ean#hile the antimimetic school

Cexemplified by ol$ and 1aruth imagines the spea$er as an aloof spectator to their

traumatic memory #ho can reliably represent it as a literal historic truth,

uncontaminated by sub(ectivity or identification #ith any perpetrator eys asserts that

#hile most theorists of trauma have attempted to advocate one of these over the other,

and in some cases, such as #ith /reud, moved bet#een them during their career, the t#o

modes are inextricable from each other C98 n9 /elmans

underlying point is that trauma is inherently resistant to the sort of *morali4ing+ and

*normali4ing+ C=80 n9 attempted by eys /elman tal$s of *the radicality of trauma

itself K the #ay in #hich Cprecisely the event of trauma destabili4es the security of

$no#ledge and stri$es at the foundation of the institutional prerogatives of #hat is

$no#n+ C=8= n9 eys, according to /elman, *in principle denies the conse"uences by

#hich trauma refuses to be pigeonholed and fundamentally subverts our frames of

:?

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reference+ C=8= n9 !rauma is *the surprise and the un$no#n+ C=>8 n9, a

*be#ildering phenomenon+ C=82 n9 that can never be fully explained

!his argument points to a central contradiction in trauma theory bet#een, on the one

hand, the 7anetian emphasis on re.integrating the trauma into narrative memory, #hich

leads in the #or$ of aub and ol$ to the possibility of healing through reclaiming the

truth, and on the other, traumas essential incomprehensibility and inaccessibility, as

asserted by /elman and 1aruth, #hose #or$ is built on the unstable foundations of the

first group iterality and incomprehensibility are, % #ould argue, incompatible

concepts !he #or$ of 1aruth exemplifies this inherent contradiction, in particular her

comments on testimony !hough she believes in the *truth+ of traumatic memory,

1aruth does not favour the healing through tal$ingInarrativi4ation approach as it may

interfere #ith its sanctity 6ecause *trauma F G evo$eFsG the difficult truth of a history

that is constituted by the very incomprehensibility of its occurrence+, the flashbac$

memory experienced by the survivor conveys both *the truth of the event, and the truth

of its incomrehensi+ility+, leading to a dilemma of sacrilege in #hich *tal$ing it out+ in

order to effect a cure #ill lose the memorys specificity and precision, the *force of its

affront to understanding+ C=

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absence is more generali4ed and tends to#ards the mythical or sublime osses occur in

actual historical trauma, such as, for example, the olocaust, #hile absence corresponds

to structural trauma, as #ith every childs separation from the #omb and mother

1onfusion bet#een the t#o has conse"uences both for the individual and for society;

'hen absence and loss are conflated, melancholic paralysis or manic agitationmay set in, and the significance or force of particular historical losses Cforexample, those of apartheid or the Shoah may be obfuscated or rashlygeneralised -s a conse"uence one encounters the dubious ideas that everyoneCincluding perpetrators or collaborators is a victim, that all history is trauma, orthat #e all share a pathological public sphere or a J#ound culture C)riting H:

!his latter phrase originates in 5ar$ Selt4ers article about public fascination #ith serial

$illers, *'ound 1ulture; !rauma in the Pathological Public Sphere+ C=??> Selt4er

defines #ound culture as *the public fascination #ith torn and opened bodies and torn

and opened persons, a collective gathering around shoc$, trauma, and the #ound+ C9

#hich leads to an over.identification #ith suffering !he idea of all history being

trauma, mean#hile, a1apra attributes mainly to 1aruth and her assertion that *a

history can only be grasped in the very inaccessibility of its occurrence+ -gainst this

tendency to conflate absence and loss, a1apra urges *#or$ing.through+ !his concept,

though /reudian and therapeutic in origin, means for a1apra not a process of healing

or closure but more of ac$no#ledging the pain of the past and turning #ith hope

to#ards the future 'or$ing.through thus *counteracts the tendency to sacrali4e trauma

or to convert it into a founding or sublime event K a traumatic sublime or transfigured

moment of blan$ insight and revelatory ab(ection+ CHistory =29

-nother version of the traumatic sublime relates to the acanian vie# of child

development oth and Salas, in.istur+ing %emains: !emory, History, and Crisis in

the T#entieth CenturyC200=, describe this tendency; */or some, trauma is a basic

feature of consciousness -#a$ening to the real is itself said to be traumatic and thus to

undermine the unity and stability of the individual sub(ect+ C2 Such a vie# has

political conse"uences Ed$ins, for example, adapts this version of trauma K the

irruption of the real into the symbolic order K into a call for political action, thereby

sacrali4ing traumatic events as moments not of ab(ection but of *revelation+ C

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o#ever, Ed$ins thesis, li$e 1aruths, again suggests the incompatibility of notions of

narrativi4ation of traumatic memory #ith its supposed resistance to comprehension

!his is seen in her opposition to the normali4ation of trauma that occurs in, for example,

state.led memoriali4ation pro(ects, as these involve a *re.inscription into linear

narratives FthatG generally depoliticises+ C=

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%ntroduction to Trauma and !emoryC=??H, editors 'illiams and 6anyard cite a

gro#ing body of evidence that proves these memories to be sub(ect to the same

distortion as any other, despite the evidence that traumatic memory does indeed #or$

differently, sho#ing that these facts are not inherently incompatible;

!here is also a profusion of research on suggestibility and memory that sho#sthat memory is reconstructive and imperfect, that memory can be influenced anddistorted, that confabulation can occur to fill in memory gaps, and that sub(ectscan be persuaded to believe they heard, sa#, or experienced events that they didnot %naccurate memories can be strongly believed and convincingly described- number of studies have been conducted to assess directly the implantation ofmemories for events that #ould be traumatic had they occurred F G F G moststudies indicate that =

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-nother example of research into collective trauma motivated by a desire for political

(ustice is ai Eri$sons analysis of the reaction of small communities to local disasters,

such as floods and industrial gas lea$s Such groups, Eri$son argues, may be said to be

traumati4ed in t#o #ays /irst, they may suffer *damage to the tissues that hold human

groups intact+ Second, they may experience the *creation of social climates,

communal moods, that come to dominate a groups spirit+ C=?0 1ommunities may, as

a result, develop a different #orldvie# in that they no longer screen out the dangers

around them, living in a perpetual state of anxiety and fear

- more theoretical example of the transference of trauma from the individual to the

collective sphere is -ndreas uyssens psychoanalysis of the entire 3erman nation in

his chapter *e#ritings and Be# 6eginnings+ fromPresent Pasts: r+an Palimsests

and the Politics of !emoryC2009 uyssen asserts that post.#ar 3erman society has

suffered a multi.layered trauma consisting of the humiliation of total defeat, olocaust

guilt, expulsion from the East, and the aftermath of destruction caused by -llied

bombardment !his trauma, uyssen argues, has manifested itself as a *repetitive

obsession+ #ith *ne# beginnings+ %n =?:

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account of post#ar literary developments as a stable progression through the decades

inherently problematic+ C=

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then to narrate the memory of traumatic events in, for example, a novel, may, by

extension, have some $ind of curative value Perhaps there is a parallel to be dra#n

bet#een, on the one hand, the literary triad of #riter, reader and sub(ect, and on the

other, the therapeutic situation of psychiatrist, patient and trauma

Such a comparison is certainly implied in the #or$ of Dori aub aub asserts that

#hen he intervie#s survivors, decades after the event, they are in some sense bearing

#itness to the event for the first time !his is because the Ba4is *brutally imposed upon

the victims a delusional ideology #hose grandiose coercive pressure totally excluded

and eliminated the possibility of an unviolated, unencumbered, and thus sane, point of

reference in the #itness+ C*Event+ 8= aub thus extends his assertion that *massive

trauma precludes its registration+ to argue that the olocaust #as, as the title of his

chapter has it, *-n Event 'ithout a 'itness+ o#ever, he suggests that through the

"uasi.therapeutic situation of the video intervie#, #hich preserves survivor memory in

the archive, a belated form of #itness may be achieved K one #hich, moreover, neatly

corresponds to the concept of latency;

%t is not by chance that these testimonies K even if they #ere engendered during

the event K become receivable only todayA it is not by chance that it is only no#,+elatedly, that the event begins to be historically grasped and seen % #ish toemphasi4e this historical ga#hich the event created in the collective#itnessing !his emphasis does not invalidate in any #ay the po#er and thevalue of the individual testimonies, but it underscores the fact that thesetestimonies #ere not transmittable, and integratable, at the time C8:, emphasisin original

!hus not only #ere the traumatic events unassimilable at the time, they could not have

been *transmitted+ to others until the latency period had elapsed aub alleges that no.

one spo$e about the olocaust in the immediate post.#ar period, a silence that, he

argues, #as partly the result of the continuing delusional sensibility imposed by the

Ba4is on its victims %t is only no#, #ith the help of people such as himself, that

#itness and healing may begin

!his may seem a highly contentious argument, relying on unverified hypotheses about

#hat people did or did not do or say in the post.#ar #orld 6ut aub goes even further,

arguing, by #ay of analogy #ith the story of the Emperors Be# 1lothes, that members

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Chapter %

&esolving the prolems of identification: LaCapra$ 'adamer$ self(refle)ivity and

transgenerational empathy

'hen dealing #ith traumatic events li$e the olocaust, #hich touch us and arouse our

sympathy, a degree of identification #ith victims is perhaps inevitable o#ever, this

seems inappropriate and ethically dubious, given the gulf bet#een our experience and

theirs Bevertheless, instead of repudiating this instinct, or pretending that it does not

exist, it may be more productive to ac$no#ledge and harness such feelings #hile

ensuring that they are tempered by an element of ob(ective distance Lne #ay to do this

is to dra# a distinction bet#een simple identification and the more complex gesture of

empathy Such is the vie# of Dominic$ a1apra, #ho argues that *empathic

unsettlement+ C)riting>8 is necessary #hen approaching the olocaust from the

position of outsider Empathy is a $ey term for a1apra, #ho defines it as *an affective

relation, rapport, or bond #ith the other recogni4ed and respected as other+ C)riting

2=2.9 'hile a1apra is chiefly concerned #ith the role of the historian, this chapter

#ill develop his ideas to sho# ho# they may be productively applied to contemporary

olocaust narratives % argue that the ethical and epistemological problems of

identification may be resolved to an extent through #hat % call *transgenerational

empathy+, an approach to the past that is self.reflexive, dra#s on ideas of time, memory

and generations, and moves both to#ards and a#ay from the victims of the past in a

simultaneous gesture of proximity and distance 5y approach also situates a1aprian

empathy in the space opened up by 3adamers concept of the *fusion of hori4ons+

bet#een past and present %n later chapters % sho# ho# transgenerational empathy

corresponds to an extent #ith the narrative strategies employed by ' 3 Sebald and

7onathan Safran /oer

Empathy has a dual structure; it is the ability simultaneously to share and understand the

feelings of another -s such, its modern meaning is entirely different from that of

sympathy, #hich connotes feelings of pity or sorro# for anothers misfortune ater in

this chapter, % trace the history of this distinction, as it helps explain the development of

empathy in various discourses from the eighteenth century on#ards /irst, ho#ever, %#ish to ma$e a crucial distinction bet#een empathy and identification %n a very broad

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sense, identification may be considered to correspond to the *shared feelings+ aspect of

empathy, #hile lac$ing the other element of understanding %n psychoanalytic theory,

identification refers to the process by #hich a patient may unconsciously incorporate

attributes of another person into his or her personality, #hile in over.identification an

excessive level of this incorporation leads to the denigration of the patients

individuality or sub(ectivity %dentification, then, is best understood as a pathological

condition or tendency #ith potentially undesirable results Cthough as #e #ill see, not

everyone agrees that over.incorporation of the other is #rong or unhelpful

%n the field of olocaust studies, particularly #here it intersects #ith trauma theory,

identification has emerged as a ma(or issue -s 3eoffrey artman noted in =??

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Bevertheless, fiction arguably contains greater dangers of identification than, say,

criticism or historiography !raditionally, identification #ith characters or situations

has been seen as crucial to the success of a story, especially from the readers

perspective o#ever, this represents a narro#ly realist vie# of fiction #hich is

increasingly under challenge from more $no#ing forms of #riting, sometimes gathered

under the heading *postmodern+ !hus the "uestion arises as to #hether such forms

resolve the problem of identification and to #hat extent

obert Eaglestone addresses this issue directly in The Holocaust and the Postmodern

C200:, arguing that #hile fiction cannot escape the problems associated #ith

identification, testimonial accounts can and do e reaches this conclusion through a

detailed debate about ethics and epistemology /irst, he asserts that postmodern thought

may represent a solution to the problem of identification, insofar as it challenges the

assumptions that lead to ethically dubious attitudes to the olocaust !hese

assumptions include the *metaphysics of comprehension,+ #hich is *both the desire for

and the methods by and through #hich 'estern thought, in many different #ays,

comprehends, sei4es, or consumes #hat is other to it and so reduces the other to itself+

C: %dentification is a $ey component of this process, as it *often leads to the

Jconsumption and reduction of otherness, the assimilation of others experience into

ones o#n frame#or$s+ CH %n the case of the olocaust, Eaglestone argues,

identification represents an illicit attempt to comprehend the incomprehensible, a danger

#hich arises each time #e are confronted #ith representations of the event;

'e #ho come after the olocaust and $no# about it only throughrepresentations are fre"uently and #ith authority told that it is incomprehensibleo#ever, the representations seem to demand us to do exactly that, to

comprehend it, to grasp the experience, to imagine the suffering, throughidentifying #ith those #ho suffered C=?

Eaglestones articulation of this dilemma reveals an interesting definition of

identification e appears to conflate *comprehend+, *grasp+ and *imagine+ into a

subset under the overall header of *identifying+ !his seems a rather limiting account of

the available options for the reader -re imagining and comprehending inextricable)

5ust one imagine in order to comprehend) %n 1hapter : of the present study, % sho#

ho# ' 3 Sebalds narratives foreground this very problem of imagining, by

H0

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consciously limiting its extent and imposing layers of distance !his suggests that

contemplation of the other need not al#ays lead to identification, #hich as % #ill sho#

may be separated, to an extent, from comprehension through the application of a

specific, distinctive notion of empathy Empathys simultaneous gesture of sharing and

understanding the feelings of others $eeps the notions of identification and

comprehension distinct, #hile also avoiding the necessity to choose bet#een one and

the other

Eaglestone, mean#hile, goes on to identify t#o issues that arise from the problem of

identification and representation /irst, he asserts that it is not epistemologically or

psychologically possible to $no# #hat it #as li$e for real olocaust victims or

survivorsA and secondly, that the see$ing of such $no#ledge is Cor should be ethically

proscribed !his idea of *illicit comprehension+ C29, ho#ever, seems to contain a

contradiction or paradox; if comprehensionIidentification is impossible, #hy is it

necessary to #arn against it) %f the attempt is futile, #hat harm can it do) /or

Eaglestone, this amounts to the abstract ethical problem of *consumption+ of the other

%t seems that people can and do attempt to identify #ith others suffering, and

Eaglestones aim is to limit this by establishing boundaries

!o further this aim, he defines *testimony+ as a genre, one #hich has advantages over

others, especially fiction;

5any forms of prose #riting encourage identification and #hile testimonycannot but do this, it at the same time aims to prohibit identification, onepistemological grounds Ca reader really cannot become, or become identified#ith, the narrator of a testimony; any such identification is an illusion and on

ethical grounds Ca reader should not become identified #ith a narrator of atestimony, as it reduces and Jnormali4es or consumes the otherness of thenarrators experience and the illusion that such an identification creates is

possibly pernicious C:2.9

Eaglestones assertion that *any such identification is an illusion+ raises the "uestion of

the 'il$omirs$i affair -s % sho# in 1hapter 9 of the present study, 6in(amin

'il$omirs$is false memoirFragmentsC=??

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is nevertheless very real to him Put another #ay; one can identify #ith a testifier or

testimony if one #ants toA calling this an *illusion+ does not change ones sub(ective

experience !o say one *should not+ is another matter, and perhaps suggests that the

real issue for Eaglestone is the problem of responsibility K a responsibility to#ards, for

example, the ethical imperative to respect others suffering 6ut it is not entirely clear

#here the responsibility lies Ln the one hand, Eaglestone argues that the testimonial

form itself*re(ects the pleasures of identification+ C98 through its *gaps, shifts, brea$s,

and ruptures+ C:=, #hile on the other hand it appears that it is the #ay one aroaches

testimony that resolves the problem; *!o read these texts as testimonies, to read the

genre, is to refuse the identification+ C:0 'ho has agency here K author or reader) Lr

the text itself)

Bot#ithstanding these unresolved issues, testimony is held up by Eaglestone as an

ethically superior genre Bevertheless, he ac$no#ledges that it does not #holly re(ect

identification;

F G Jdoubleness is central to the genre of testimony; the texts lead toidentification and a#ay from it simultaneously !his stress bet#een centrifugaland centripetal forces is played out, but not resolved, in the texts of testimoniesand it is this that characterises the genre of testimony C:9

/or Eaglestone this *stress+ can only exist in testimony, not fiction, because *the

reading that fiction re"uires too often demands the sort of process of identification that

Jconsumes the events+ C=92 Bovels, he argues, tend to encourage us to identify #ith

ethically dubious sub(ect positions, such as perpetrator, passive victim, or bystander,

leading to a *tension K bet#een the demand of fiction that #e identify and the demand

of the olocaust that #e cannot and should not K that unbalances even the most subtleof F G novels+ C=92 Eaglestones opposition of the categories *fiction+ and

*testimony+ appears to elide the possibility that fictionali4ation is present in all forms of

#riting, including Cperhaps especially autobiographical forms 5oreover, his argument

implicitly discounts the possibility of narratives that sit some#here +et#eenfiction and

testimony %n my chapters on Sebald and /oer, % sho# ho# certain contemporary

olocaust narratives may be put into this category, and ho# they enact, through

transgenerational empathy, something a$in to Eaglestones *doubleness+, through a

simultaneous action of proximity and distance %ndeed, the characteristics of testimony

H2

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that Eaglestone describes, such as *interruptions+ to a past narrative by a narrator in the

present, or *disruptions in F G chronology+, are characteristic of contemporary

literature in general, ma$ing the distinction bet#een genres even harder to sustain

o#ever, Eaglestone adds a further component to his genre of testimony e argues

that it is distinguished by *an existential uncovering or revelation+ in the form of a

*trace+, #hich is *the grounds for that #hich refuses comprehension Chere, through

identification; it is the trace of incomprehensible other, the #itness+ C>0 !hrough this

idea Eaglestone see$s to resolve a paradox, namely that of the critic CEaglestone #ho

ma$es a gesture of comprehension Cthrough #riting to#ards that #hich he has named

as incomprehensible Cthe olocaust !hus Eaglestone engages #ith the contradiction

inherent in the search for the truth of a past #hich is simultaneously defined as beyond

reach -s % sho#ed in my last chapter, this contradiction is at the heart of trauma

theory, and has been critici4ed as tending to#ards sublimation %ndeed, Eaglestones

characterisation of testimony as *revelation+ echoes 7enny Ed$ins valorisation of the

traumatic moment as the catalyst for political action !hough their meaning of the term

is different, both parta$e of a discourse #hich appears to gesture to#ards #hat a1apra

has called *the tendency to sacrali4e trauma or to convert it into a founding or sublime

event+ CHistory in Transit=29

olocaust and trauma studies, then, coincide in Eaglestones analysis of the problem of

identification 6ut this does not mean that all approaches grounded in those fields #ill

reach the same conclusion Ernst van -lphens thesis in Caught +y History: Holocaust

Effects in Contemorary Art, Literature, and TheoryC=??> represents the ethical

reverse to Eaglestones position, arguing in favour of all $inds of identification #ith

olocaust part