Trauma Culture

E. Ann Kaplan is a professor of English, SUNY at Stony Brook, where she also founded and directs the Humanities Institute. She was recently the president of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.

• Introduction : 9/11 and "disturbing remains""Why trauma now?" : Freud and trauma studiesMemory as testimony in World War II : Freud, Duras, and KofmanMelodrama and trauma : displacement in Hitchcock's SpellboundVicarious trauma and "empty" empathy : media images of Rwanda and the Iraq War"Translating" trauma in postcolonial contexts : indigeneity on filmThe ethics of witnessing : Maya Deren and Tracey MoffattEpilogue : "Wounded New York" : rebuilding and memorials to 9/11

"This book will have significant impact in film and media studies because Kaplan so skillfully 'translates' the most interesting work done in trauma studies and takes it in new and original directions. It is illuminating, lucid, and persuasive." - Patrice Petro (author of Aftershocks of the New: Feminism and Film History) "This book is an important, compelling, and timely contribution to trauma studies and film and media studies. It is an engaging read-a real page-turner-not only because of its conversational style and beautiful prose but also because it addresses some of the most complex psychological issues facing our culture today." - W. Alton Jones (Vanderbilt University) "Kaplan offers a rich yet concise discussion of trauma culture from objective and personal perspectives, without sacrificing scholarly rigor. Memory, mourning, testimony, and witnessing are key terms, but the book's special strength is Kaplan's expert discussion of film and the media and the ways in which they position spectators. A first-rate, sophisticated introduction to the field. Highly recommended." (Choice)