Trauma and Survival in Contemporary Fiction

In an exploration of how contemporary fiction narratives represnet trauma - that response to events so overwhelmingly intense that normal responses become impaired - Laurie Vickroy engages a wealth of the 20th centurys most striking literature. Toni Morrisons Beloved and Jazz Marguerite Durass The Lover Dorothy allisons Bastard out of Carolina Jamaica Kincaids The Autobiography of My Mother and Larry Heinemanns Pacos Story among others are the source of Vickroys study investigating the complex relationships portrayed in trauma fiction and how those portrayals direct this difficult material to readers. Vickroy argues that contemporary trauma narratives are indeed personalized responses to this centurys emerging awareness of the catastrophic effects on the individual psyche of wars poverty colonization and domestic abuse. She examines these texts as post colonial attempts to rearticulate the lives and voices of marginalized people to reject Western conceptions of the autonomous subject and to recognize the complex negotiations of multicultural social relations. Trauma is a compelling and evocative topic in the contemporary world and as reflected in its literature. In unravelling traumas effets the texts studied in Trauma and Survival in Contemporary Fiction reveal the intricacies of power and the relationship between societys demands and the individuals psychological well-being.