[Bilimsel Haber] CFP: Trauma in the Twenty-First Century (3/16/07; journal issue)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

Life Writing
Special Issue 2008

"Trauma in the Twenty-First Century”
Guest editors: Kate Douglas and Gillian Whitlock

This issue of Life Writing seeks to explore the ways in which life
narratives of trauma are circulating in contemporary cultural
landscapes. What events and memories are considered ‘traumatic’ in the
contemporary world and why? Whose traumatic memories are commemorated in
the public sphere? And what is the political utility of these traumatic
memories? What are the implications of representing an event or memory
as traumatic, or in representing an individual or community as traumatised?

In recent years life writing has become one of the most prominent
cultural spaces for the articulation of traumatic memories—-for
instance, narratives of child abuse and neglect, domestic violence,
illness, cultural displacement, war/conflict and torture have been
published in various life writing forms and media from monographs to
websites. Auto/biographical narratives of trauma can be found in a range
of non-fictional literatures from poetry and plays to self-help books.
Traumatic narratives are a constant presence on television talk shows
and current affairs bulletins. Indeed, visual media—-particularly film,
television and documentary—-have played a significant role in
representing and defining trauma. Traumatic life narratives are put to
use in everyday culture. For example, charitable organisations and
activists make appeals for their social justice campaigns using
photographs and short narratives representing traumatic lives.

As Leigh Gilmore argues, the publication of these traumatic narratives
“would be inconceivable were it not for the social and political
movements of the past thirty years that have made it possible for a […]
range of people to publish accounts of their life experiences […]
illuminating suppressed histories and creating new emphases” (The Limits
of Autobiography 16). Auto/biographical texts have played a significant
part in conceiving and theorising trauma; in defining certain events as
traumatic; and in shaping cultural memory. Auto/biographical writings of
trauma are used to legitimate experiences, and to mediate the
transmission of personal narratives into public life and socio-cultural
history.
	
Possible topics might consider, but are not limited to, the areas of:

Theorising trauma within contemporary contexts
Trauma and memory, trauma and amnesia
Life narratives of illness and/or injury
Life narratives following natural disasters
Narratives of torture
Narratives of war/conflict; post-war life writing
Survivor narratives (for instance, survivors of violent crime, survivors
of abuse/neglect); recovered memory syndrome
Narrative therapy as life writing
Life writing and human rights activism
Cross-cultural trauma
Creative non-fiction and responses to trauma
Trauma and cultural memory
Trauma and commemoration
The role of digital media in traumatic remembering; visual and internet
media representations of trauma
Testimony
Witnessing
The ethical and methodological challenges of writing trauma
Trauma and identity
Cultural displacement and trauma
Racial or sexual oppression as trauma
Inclusion and exclusion; remembering and forgetting
Hauntings and post memory

We are particularly seeking articles that explore the changing
landscapes of trauma narrative, for example post-colonial and
non-European sites of testimony. We encourage submissions on all forms
of auto/biography across all media.

Please send a 300-word abstract or completed papers (between 4000-8000
words including a short abstract of about 200 words, notes and Works
Cited, MLA style) together with a 100-word biographical note as Word or
RTF attachments to: Dr Kate Douglas (Kate.Douglas at flinders.edu.au ) or
Professor Gillian Whitlock (G.Whitlock at uq.edu.au).

Abstracts or papers are due on 16th March 2007. Following acceptance,
completed papers will be due on 18th May 2007


-- 
Dr Kate Douglas
Department of English and Cultural Studies
Flinders University of South Australia
GPO Box 2100
Adelaide 5001
Australia

ph. 08 82012292
fax. 08 82013636
e-mail: Kate.Douglas at flinders.edu.au


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