The Poetics of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Postmodern Literature

The Poetics of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Postmodern Literature explores the intersection of early medical trauma treatment and the postmodern canon of the 1960s and 1970s, identifying key postmodern literary tropes as products of an overarching post-traumatic stress disorder narrative paradigm. It performs a medical humanities reading of Thomas Pynchons Gravitys Rainbow, Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-5, and Joseph Hellers Catch-22, introducing a novel way of examining trauma at the intersection of narrative, history, and medicine.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 106 pages
Publication date: 16 April 2022
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

The Poetics of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Postmodern Literature delves into an interdisciplinary exploration of early medical trauma treatment and the emergence of the postmodern canon in the 1960s and 1970s. Through the identification of key postmodern literary tropes such as paranoia, uncanniness, and biomedical mediation as manifestations of a overarching post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) narrative paradigm, this concise study unveils previously unexplored aspects of the canonical novels at hand. It highlights the connection between individual and collective traumatization, emphasizes the presence of epic elements in postmodern narratives, and identifies the influence of emerging psychiatric treatment on post-World War II novels. By conducting a medical humanities reading of Thomas Pynchons Gravitys Rainbow (1973), Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-5 (1969), and Joseph Hellers Catch-22 (1961), this book offers a novel approach to examining trauma at the intersection of narrative, history, and medicine. It recalibrates the significance of postmodern politics of transformation and advocates for an aesthetics of trauma. Furthermore, by examining the historical and political developments that shaped the formation of PTSD in the aftermath of the wars in Korea and Vietnam, this book argues that the perception of PTSD symptoms directly influenced aesthetic and literary tropes of the Cold War era.

Weight: 168g
Dimension: 210 x 148 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783030676322
Edition number: 1st ed. 2021