This work examines the links between the language of literature and the language of psychoanalysis in terms of their uses in the examination of trauma in the 20th century. By examining trauma in the 20th century, we can recognize the possibility of a history no longer based on simple models of straightforward experience and reference. The author argues that, through the notion of trauma, we come to a new understanding that permits history to arise where immediate understanding is impossible. The text engages with the ideas of Freud, Kleist, Kant, and Lecompte.