AfterWords: Three Academics Reconsidering Narratives of Trauma and Violence in the Humanities

Recorded February 9th, 2024. Hosted by the School of English of
Trinity College Dublin and the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts &
Humanities Research Institute. The way violence is represented
always influences its reception and integration within the cultural
imaginary. The narration of violence is ingrained in our perception
of ourselves and our communities, and those who report traumatic
events then carry the responsibility of how they are received and
memorialised. Just as the world emerged from the COVID-19 crisis,
the Russian invasion of Ukraine turned the general atmosphere of
hope for a new beginning into an even darker and more oppressive
state of uncertainty, fear, and sorrow. As scholar Judith Lewis
Herman has observed, “[t]he conflict between the will to deny
horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central
dialectic of psychological trauma.”[1] How do newspapers and media
reports choose which pieces of information are to be shared with
the public? Why are certain stories considered more important than
others? On which premises are specific pieces of news discarded?
How geographically, culturally, and socially inclusive are these
narratives? And, most importantly, when it comes to trauma, how
ethical and accurate can its depiction be when told by someone
else? Learn more at: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/