Partners in catastrophe: The phantasmic in African American, Jewish American, and Native American trauma narratives

Stella Setka, Purdue University

Abstract

Much recent criticism in the field of ethnic American literature has demonstrated the need for cross-cultural understanding among different ethnic groups. "Partners in Catastrophe" contributes to this exciting scholarship in two ways: 1) it creates opportunities for cross-cultural understanding by reading different ethnic trauma narratives side by side, thus revealing the parallel representational strategies that such texts use to connect a diverse readership to cultural histories not their own, and 2) it makes a pedagogical intervention by attending to the notion of an empathic reader and the promotion of ethical engagement across ethnic divides. By emphasizing the value of reader empathy as a conduit for ethical thinking, my project offers a new way of considering the power of literature as a force that can be used to challenge and redefine readers' understanding of cultural histories and experiences not their own. This dissertation argues that a growing number of American ethnic authors are turning toward what I term "phantasmic trauma narratives," a form of writing that uses culturally specific modes of the fantastic or the supernatural to engage the traumatic past and give voice to those who have been marginalized in mainstream historiographic accounts. Drawing on narrative theory and using an ethnic studies methodology, I show how phantasmic novels—by writers such as Octavia Butler, Phyllis Alesia Perry, Jonathan Safran Foer, Thane Rosenbaum, LeAnne Howe, and Blake Hausman—and phantasmic films—by screenwriters such as Haile Gerima, Robert J. Avrech, and Georgina Lightning—can present historical trauma in ways that appeal to diverse audiences and inspire ethical thinking about the plight of the marginalized subject. I examine how these narratives function as sites of cultural and historical memory that provide a critical purchase on the enormity of enslavement, genocide, and dispossession.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Patton, Purdue University.

Subject Area

African American Studies|Black studies|American literature|Native American studies|Judaic studies|Film studies

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