Abstract
The issues of trauma and cultural memory or the effects of violence and victimization on the formation of identity are no doubt of great relevance to our present times. This has not escaped the notice of the academia, and trauma theory, which has been in circulation for many years, is at the forefront of academic research in a large range of fields — from psychology and cognitive science to literature and screen studies. In this chapter, I will relate the rise of trauma theory to a ‘crisis in representation’ evidenced in both the humanities and the social sciences.1 Trauma is not restricted to the outcome of devastating events. As Thomas Elsaesser notes, the significance of the term is due less to its reference to catastrophic events than to the revised understanding of referentiality that it fosters. Thus, according to Elsaesser, ‘Trauma theory is not so much a theory of recovered memory as it is one of recovered referentiality’ (2001, p. 201).
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© 2009 Roy Brand
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Brand, R. (2009). Witnessing Trauma on Film. In: Frosh, P., Pinchevski, A. (eds) Media Witnessing. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230235762_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230235762_10
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-36236-3
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