Understanding political violence in culture: Critical reflections on trauma theory and contemporary Arabic literature

Abstract

This article deals with the question of adequate approaches to the study of trauma representations in contemporary Arabic literature.  After a critique and further development of trauma theories and concepts that are still frequently used today (Caruth, Alexander, PTSD), the article develops its own analytical framework that focuses on the political and ideological implications of writing about trauma. The aim is to better grasp the interactions between the individual, social and cultural spheres of trauma dynamics and situations. On the basis of an ethics of reading, the article argues for a (re)contextualizing approach to literary texts in which the political dimensions are captured as comprehensively as possible without reducing literature to a socio-political text.