“Decolonizing Trauma Studies: Trauma and Postcolonialism”—Introduction

Abstract

This Special Issue aims to explore the complex and contested relationship between trauma studies and postcolonial criticism, focusing on the ongoing project to create a decolonized trauma theory that attends to and accounts for the suffering of minority groups and non-Western cultures, broadly defined as cultures beyond Western Europe and North America. The issue builds on the insights of, inter alia, Stef Craps's book, Postcolonial Witnessing [1], and responds to his challenge to interrogate and move beyond a Eurocentric trauma paradigm. Authors were invited to submit papers on the theorization and representation of any aspect of postcolonial, non-Western and/or minority cultural trauma with a focus predominately, but not exclusively, on literature. The field of trauma studies emerged in the early 1990s as an attempt to construct an ethical response to forms of human suffering and their cultural and artistic representation. Born out of the confluence between deconstructive and psychoanalytic criticism and the study of Holocaust literature, from its outset trauma theory's mission was to bear witness to traumatic histories in such a way as to attend to the suffering of the other. Indeed, in a famous formulation, Caruth went so far as to suggest that 'trauma itself may provide the very link between cultures' ([2], p. 11). Yet, while trauma theory has undoubtedly yielded numerous insights into the relationship between psychic suffering and cultural representation, postcolonial critics have been arguing for some time that trauma theory has not fulfilled its promise of cross-cultural ethical engagement. Rather than forging relationships of empathy and solidarity with non-Western others, a narrowly Western canon of trauma literature has in effect emerged, one which privileges the suffering of white Europeans, and neglects the specificity of non-Western and minority cultural traumas. In 2003, for example, Jill Bennett and Roseanne Kennedy called for a transformation of trauma studies from a Eurocentric discipline to one capable of engaging with 'the multicultural and diasporic nature of contemporary culture' ([3], p. 5), and in 2008 a number of influential critiques by Gert Beulens and Stef Craps [4], Michael Rothberg [5], and Roger Luckhurst [6] added to the voices calling for a radical rerouting of the field.

Against Single Stories of ‘Left Behind’ and ‘Triple Win’: On Agricultural Care Chains and the Permanent Subsistence Crisis

“…What trauma am I referring to and what do I mean by this? Following the reflections on decolonizing trauma studies ( Linklater, 2011 ; Andermahr, 2016 ), I understand trauma in this context as shared experiences of danger to life and of subordination as well as experiences of forced expropriation of land that continuously harmed and shaped whole communities over generations. These experiences are inscribed in the individuals just as they are inscribed in the relations between them and others and into the landscapes.…”

A Pluralistic Perspective on Research in Psychotherapy: Harnessing Passion, Difference and Dialogue to Promote Justice and Relevance

“…In recent years, even though some researchers and practitioners have begun to develop a postcolonial approach to psychotherapy research, it is clear that more needs to be done. For example, although trauma therapy has received considerable attention from a postcolonial perspective (Bennett and Kennedy, 2003;Andermahr, 2016), traumatic experiences of minorities are still marginalised while Western definitions of trauma are taken as universally valid (Craps, 2013). This historical analysis has sought to provide an outline of how methodologies that reflect an explicit or implicit pluralistic standpoint have emerged over several decades as increasingly salient aspects of research in psychotherapy, counselling and related disciplines.…”

Book Review: Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code

“…Despite this, this book is a useful resource for studying the gendered middle class through classical music and is an insightful read for those interested in knowing more about cultural tastes and class. The last decades have seen a postcolonial turn in trauma studies that calls for the decolonization of theories that were regarded as inherently western, exclusively focused on the event, and insufficient in their scope (Andermahr, 2015;Craps, 2013;Visser, 2011). The Cultural Trauma of Decolonization: Colonial Returnees in the National Imagination interrogates further aspects of the relationship between trauma and decolonization from a different and difficult perspective: that of the subjects from colonial powers who migrated to the colonies and then were forced to return upon decolonization.…”