ABSTRACT
This chapter presents contemporary trauma theory and Sigmund Freud's 1915 essay 'Mourning and Melancholia' to explore Julie and Julia's female-focused and orientated response to the prevailing cultural discourse of wounded national pride, trauma and retribution. Female-orientated films are always a much smaller sector of the industry as deep-seated gender bias continues to ensure that nominally male-orientated genres, such as the war film or disaster movie, are seen to have a cross-gender, universal appeal that woman's films lack. The chapter shows that film and historical trauma to offer a brief account of the way in which the 'appropriate' filmic response to 9/11 was rapidly established through the pre-existing codes of male trauma cinema – specifically, those associated with the war or action movie. Diane Negra noted a subtle, post-9/11 shift in the relationship dynamics of contemporary women's films as early as 2003.
