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Empathy and the Phantasmic in Ethnic American Trauma Narratives

Stella Setka

Empathy and the Phantasmic in Ethnic American Trauma Narratives examines a burgeoning genre of ethnic American literature called phantasmic trauma narratives, which use culturally specific modes of the supernatural to connect readers to historical traumas such as slavery and genocide. Drawing on trauma theory and using an ethnic studies methodology, this book shows how phantasmic novels and films present historical trauma in ways that seek to invite reader/viewer empathy about the cultural groups represented. In so doing, the author argues that these texts also provide models of interracial alliances to encourage contemporary cross-cultural engagement as a restorative response to historical traumas. Further, the author examines how these narratives function as sites of cultural memory that provide a critical purchase on the enormity of enslavement, genocide, and dispossession.

Lexington Books

Pages: 174 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4985-8383-1 • Hardback • May 2020 • $100.00 • (£77.00)

978-1-4985-8385-5 • Paperback • May 2022 • $39.99 • (£31.00)

978-1-4985-8384-8 • eBook • May 2020 • $95.00 • (£29.00)

Series: Reading Trauma and Memory

Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / General, Literary Criticism / Modern / General, Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / General

Empathy and the Phantasmic in Ethnic American Trauma Narratives

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Empathy and the Phantasmic in Ethnic American Trauma Narratives examines a burgeoning genre of ethnic American literature called phantasmic trauma narratives, which use culturally specific modes of the supernatural to connect readers to historical traumas such as slavery and genocide. Drawing on trauma theory and using an ethnic studies methodology, this book shows how phantasmic novels and films present historical trauma in ways that seek to invite reader/viewer empathy about the cultural groups represented. In so doing, the author argues that these texts also provide models of interracial alliances to encourage contemporary cross-cultural engagement as a restorative response to historical traumas. Further, the author examines how these narratives function as sites of cultural memory that provide a critical purchase on the enormity of enslavement, genocide, and dispossession.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 174 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4985-8383-1 • Hardback • May 2020 • $100.00 • (£77.00)

978-1-4985-8385-5 • Paperback • May 2022 • $39.99 • (£31.00)

978-1-4985-8384-8 • eBook • May 2020 • $95.00 • (£29.00)

Series: Reading Trauma and Memory

Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / General, Literary Criticism / Modern / General, Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / General

Author

Stella Setka is associate professor of English at West Los Angeles College.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Phantasmic Trauma Narratives

Chapter 1: Phantasmic Africanisms: Igbo Cosmology in Octavia Butler’s Kindred

Chapter 2: Phantasmic Midrashim: The Midrashic Roots of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated

Chapter 3: A Phantasmic Tribalography: The Case of LeAnne Howe’s Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story

Chapter 4: Projecting the Phantasmic

Conclusion: The Call to Infinite Responsibility

Empathy and the Phantasmic in Ethnic American Trauma Narratives

Stella Setka

Empathy and the Phantasmic in Ethnic American Trauma Narratives

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