Seminar: Cult F: Trauma and Memory

Dominick LaCapra describes trauma as “a shattering experience that distorts memory", making it "vulnerable and fallible in reporting events” (2009: 61). In thinking through events that cause trauma and how it comes to affect memory as well as how this goes further to have a transgenerational impact are some of the issues we wrestle with in this course. This course seeks to offer perspectives on how memory and trauma resurface and particularly how transgenerational trauma manifests in the postcolony. This is an introductory course and explores the ways in which traumatic memory and its modes of intergenerational transmission are represented in postcolonial fiction. We will explore examples from Africa, specifically Nigeria and South Africa.