Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity"A timely and sophisticated series of studies. Articulating diverse strands of social theory with the historical episodes that have had major affective resonances within national cultures, the volume as a whole contributes significantly to our understanding of relationships between collective affect and social process."—Michael Shapiro, Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawaii "The fine and deeply argued essays in this book build a strong case against a naturalistic theory of collective traumas. Traumas are made, not born, claim the authors. And they brilliantly cast a steely gaze on several social nightmares--the Nazi holocaust, slavery in the United States, September 11, 2001--in order to limn the social and cultural processes by which events come to be viewed as threatening to the very identity of collectivities. Ultimately this is a book about the nature of the very normative order that gives meaning to the human condition."—Robin Wagner-Pacifici, author of Theorizing the Standoff "Near the end of the 20th century, scholarly interest in collective memory surged, spurred on both by re-examinations of the Holocaust and other canonical sources of trauma, and by the rise of a new set of institutionalized processes of collective memory-work. It is the great merit of these essays to approach the problems of collective trauma in sociological terms, as theorizable patterns in socially and culturally organized processes. This is a vital corrective to more naturalistic understandings and complement to those focused more narrowly on psychology or textual analysis."—Craig Calhoun, President, Social Science Research Council "This interactive collection of essays breaks new ground in the sociology of trauma. With its rich range of empirical cases, this book will inspire new debates across the social sciences about memory, collective suffering, and coping."—Arjun Appadurai, Professor of International Studies, Yale University |
Contents
Psychological Trauma and Cultural Trauma | 31 |
Slavery and the Formation | 60 |
The Holocaust | 112 |
A Case | 155 |
September 11 2001 as Cultural Trauma | 264 |
283 | |
299 | |
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Common terms and phrases
affect African American antisemitism associated atrocities attacks audience Auschwitz became become black nationalism camps CBOS Bulletin century civil collective guilt collective identity collective memory collective trauma communist construction context coping created crimes cultural trauma debates defense defined democracy democratic developed discourse dominant economic Elijah Muhammad emerged ethnic evil example experience Freud genocide German groups Hitler Holocaust human identified individual intellectuals involved Jewish mass Jews Kristallnacht Malcolm X mass killings mass media mass murder means ment modern moral movement national identity national trauma Nazi Nazism Negro past percent perpetrators perspective political postwar present progressive narrative psychological psychological trauma racial radical reconstruction reference representation represented responsibility ritual role sense September 11 situations slave slavery Smelser social society story strategies suffering symbolic Sztompka threat tion tive tragedy tragic trauma drama trauma process traumatic event traumatogenic change United victims Western