Trauma theory pertains to the study of literature on and about trauma and violence, identifying the connections (and disconnections) between theory and practice.
Topics of consideration include: Trauma in the context of race, class, and sexuality; the ethics of representing trauma in testimonial literature, autobiography (including false trauma memoirs) and fictional texts; and the capacity of language to articulate the experience of trauma.
Topics for discussion include: personal trauma such as rape, incest, relationship violence, and mental illness; as well as historical trauma such as the Holocaust, American slavery, Native American genocide and the Vietnam War.
Trauma theory can be situated at the intersection of post-structuralist, feminist, and psychoanalytic theoretical approaches, and as such it seeks to move past them.
NOTABLE TRAUMA THEORISTS INCLUDE: