Embodied Traumas in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Literature

This chapter examines the rise of trauma theory as a prevalent cultural and critical concept in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Key critiques of the concept – both in terms of its clinical and cultural dominance – are considered, particularly of its Western biases, and of the self-reinforcing bodies of trauma literature and criticism. The second half of the chapter considers a range of American trauma texts, with a particular focus on the work of Toni Morrison. These novels are examined for their complicated relationship to dominant theories of trauma representation, and for the way trauma texts increasingly respond to broader contemporary cultural and social concerns, including global warming.