ABSTRACT
Trauma and Media argues that theoretical and cultural discourses of trauma and witnessing, which have achieved such prominence in recent research in the humanities, have often tended to reinforce rather than interrogate the assumption that certain events are inherently traumatic for large collectives, such as nations or specifi c ethnic groups. Recent trauma theory wants to bear witness to authentic forms of testimony that directly transmit experience outside the codes and conventions of mainstream media. Against this transmission model, this book argues for an understanding of historical trauma as an open-ended, experimental approach to engaging with the violent and catastrophic legacies of the past. I understand historical trauma not only in terms of bearing witness to specifi c events and experiences, but also as an ongoing struggle over representations of the past. The conceptualization of trauma plays an important part in that struggle.
