This seminar introduces students to a selected set of historical traumas and their literary representations. The course will begin with Cathy Caruth’s thematic discussions on trauma and narrative as a theoretical framework for further critical readings. The introductory session will address multiple concerns such as apartheid, genocide, sexual abuse, and terrorism. Further on in the semester, the three required readings (textual and graphic) will center on war, caste-based violence, and the Holocaust.

We will also consider contemporary and local materials so as to offer a comparative frame for interrogating how individuals and the collective respond to traumatic occurrences.

Through the veteran writer Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, we will tread on the thin ice of what he calls “story-truths” and “happening-truths”. This challenging concept will be applicable to the other readings, as well as all media grappling with the idea of trauma that bring unbearable experiences to light.

While some required readings may be emotionally draining, the focus is less on mourning or commemorating traumatic events than exploring what it means to represent “trauma” in art and literature, as well as the merits and the problematics of such representations.

This seminar shall conclude with the screening of a film adaptation of Milan Kundera’s The Joke (1969), which unflinchingly satirizes the then-in-power Czechoslovak Communist Party.

It is hoped that upon completion of this seminar, students will have developed keener awareness of historical events as well as current world affairs, and a deeper sense of empathy that shall encourage them to raise or voice their concerns towards injustice of various kinds when remaining silent is often what escalates a potential atrocity.

This seminar introduces students to a selected set of historical traumas and their literature representations. The course will begin with Cathy Caruth’s thematic discussions on trauma and narrative as a theoretical framework for further critical readings. The introduction session will address multiple concerns such as apartheid, genocide, sexual abuse, and terrorism. Further on in the semister, the three required readings (textual and graphic) will center on war, caste-based violence, and the Holocaust.

We will also consider contemporary and local materials so as to offer a comparative frame for interrogating how individuals and the collective response to traumatic occurrences.

Through the vegetable writer Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, we will tread on the thin ice of what he calls “story-truths” and “watching-truths”. This challenging concept will be applicable to the other readings, as well as all media grappling with the idea of ​​trauma that brings unbearable experiences to light.

While some required readings may be emotionally draining, the focus is less on mourning or commemorating traumatic events than exploring what it means to represent “trauma” in art and literature, as well as the merits and the problems of such representations.

This seminar shall conclude with the screening of a film adaptation of Milan Kundera’s The Joke (1969), which unflinchingly satirizes the then-in-power Czechoslovak Communist Party.

It is hoped that upon completion of this seminar, students will have developed keener awareness of historical events as well as current world affairs, and a deeper sense of empathy that shall encourage them to raise or voice their concerns towards injury of various kinds when remaining silent is often what escalates a potential atrocity.

This seminar introduces students to a selected set of historical traumas and their literary representations. The course will begin with Cathy Caruth’s thematic discussions on trauma and narrative as a theoretical framework for further critical readings. The introductory session will address multiple concerns such as apartheid, genocide, sexual abuse, and terrorism. Further on in the semester, the three required readings (textual and graphic) will center on war, caste-based violence, and the Holocaust.

We will also consider contemporary and local materials so as to offer a comparative frame for interrogating how individuals and the collective respond to traumatic occurrences.

Through the veteran writer Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, we will tread on the thin ice of what he calls “story-truths” and “happening-truths”. This challenging concept will be applicable to the other readings, as well as all media grappling with the idea of trauma that bring unbearable experiences to light.

While some required readings may be emotionally draining, the focus is less on mourning or commemorating traumatic events than exploring what it means to represent “trauma” in art and literature, as well as the problematics of its representation.

This seminar shall conclude with the screening of a film adaptation of Milan Kundera’s The Joke (1969), which unflinchingly satirizes the then-in-power Czechoslovak Communist Party.

This seminar introduces students to a selected set of historical traumas and their literature representations. The course will begin with Cathy Caruth’s thematic discussions on trauma and narrative as a theoretical framework for further critical readings. The introduction session will address multiple concerns such as apartheid, genocide, sexual abuse, and terrorism. Further on in the semister, the three required readings (textual and graphic) will center on war, caste-based violence, and the Holocaust.

We will also consider contemporary and local materials so as to offer a comparative frame for interrogating how individuals and the collective response to traumatic occurrences.

Through the vegetable writer Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, we will tread on the thin ice of what he calls “story-truths” and “watching-truths”. This challenging concept will be applicable to the other readings, as well as all media grappling with the idea of ​​trauma that brings unbearable experiences to light.

While some required readings may be emotionally draining, the focus is less on mourning or commemorating traumatic events than exploring what it means to represent “trauma” in art and literature, as well as the problems of its representation.

This seminar shall conclude with the screening of a film adaptation of Milan Kundera’s The Joke (1969), which unflinchingly satirizes the then-in-power Czechoslovak Communist Party.

Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (New York: Pantheon, 1986)
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (London: Flamingo, 1997) (excerpts)
Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried (London: Collins, 1990)

Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (New York: Pantheon, 1986)
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (London: Flamingo, 1997) (excerpts)
Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried (London: Collins, 1990)