In The Nature of Trauma in the American Novel, Michelle Balaev undertakes an ambitious rethinking of the foundations, implementations, and new possibilities of literary trauma theory.
Introduction 1 I. Trauma Theory and Its Discontents: The Potentials of Pluralism 17 II. The Role of Place in Remembering: Lan Cao's Monkey Bridge 63 III. The Traumatized Protagonist and Mythic Landscapes: Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony 78 IV. Wilderness, Loss, and Cultural Contexts in Edward Abbey's Black Sun 93 V. Neocolonialism and Polluted Places in Robert Barclay's Melal 120 Conclusion 146 Notes 153 Bibliography 164
