Trauma: Explorations in Culture (NeMLA 2021)
Theorist Cathy Caruth popularized literary trauma theory in the mid-1990s, arguing that in the event of psychic trauma, “while the images of traumatic reenactment remain absolutely accurate and precise, they are largely inaccessible to conscious recall and control” (Caruth 151). Objections to Caruthian trauma theory often take one of two forms; scholars either object to the underlying theory of psychic trauma, or they object because of the limitations of psychic trauma.