Promotional Information

Post-traumatic Culture is a highly creative analysis of trauma, both real and imagined, as part of a cultural system. Its mix of literary analysis, provocative moments, and tantalizing speculation makes it truly a one of a kind book. -- Elizabeth Loftus, President, American Psychological Society Farrell treats a variety of sensational contemporary issues, like post-traumatic stress disorder and the public's panic over child abuse, as cultural tropes, exploring their literary and cinematic narrativizations for the ideological interests they serve. Of particular interest are the discussions about how English and American cultures 'manage' trauma, and how public fantasies model experiences of victimization. The chapter on the film Schindler's List offers a brilliant reading which relates the slave labor economy of the Nazis and Schindler himself to the inhumane conditions of 'Depression-era capitalist cultures' in general, and to today's trend of corporate 'downsizing' with its all too real traumatic consequences. -- Joel Black, University of Georgia A rich and eloquent critical study which offers the violent and visionary aspects of late 19th-century literature and culture as a mirror for our own no less stressful times. -- Patrick Parrinder, The University of Reading

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Trauma as Interpretation of Injury
Part I: The Sorrows of the Gay Nineties
Chapter 1. Traumatic Heroism
Chapter 2. Empty Treasure: Sherlock Holmes in Shock
Chapter 3. Post-Traumatic Mourning: Rider Haggard in the Underworld
Chapter 4. Traumatic Prophecy: H.G.Wells at the End of Time
Chapter 5. Post-Traumatic Style: Oscar Wilde in Prison
Part II: Trauma as Story in the 1990s
Chapter 6. Thinking Through Others: Prosthetic Fantasy and Trauma
Chapter 7. Abuse as a Prosthetic System
Chapter 8. Traumatic Triumph in a Black Childhood
Chapter 9. Traumatic Economies in Schindler's List
Chapter 10. Traumatic Romance / Romantic Trauma
Chapter 11. Berserk in Babylon
Chapter 12. Amok at the Apocalypse
Epilogue
Notes
Index

About the Author

Kirby Farrell is professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His books include Snuff, The American Satan, and Play-Death and Heroism in Shakespeare.