ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 on Isabel Allende argues that cognitively disintegrative effects a prolonged state of anticipatory maternal bereavement show the limited temporal dimension of the current trauma category. In addition to exceeding a sudden event and belatedness, the narrative demonstrates that the existing theoretical focus on post-trauma makes no conceptual accommodations for experiences during trauma. The author explores how Allende’s use of storytelling and epistolary narration allows protracted personal and collective wounds of exile and political violence to resurface and argues that her bidirectional engagement with memory undermines linear temporality productively. The analysis asks how magical realist elements grasp so-called unrepresentable experiences, which exceed rational boundaries. This chapter proposes that her frequent transgressions of form expand the representability of complex trauma in the global South, which is chronically marginalized by Westocentric concepts and aesthetic normativity. An exploration of the reparative potential inherent in narrative engagements with corrupted memory establishes a structural link between nostalgia and traumatic memory to demonstrate how Allende overcomes various forms of alienation and homelessness.
