Trauma and the Mediated Self

Contemporary Life Writing Across Media

Loredana Bercuci

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2024
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781978787186
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: North American Literary Criticism
• Index: Social Sciences

Trauma and the Mediated Self: Contemporary Life Writing Across Media examines twenty-first century representations of trauma in life writing across several media, including printed-word memoir, graphic memoir, autodocumentary, and autobiographical video games. Through careful analysis, Loredana Bercuci uncovers the medium-specific demands for the representation of trauma in life writing in the context of the contemporary memoir boom. She broadly argues that for a trauma representation to be considered successful, each medium adapts its own means to adhere to a certain definition of trauma and in this manner a particular piece of life writing is accepted as a successful and reliable representation of trauma. The representation of trauma in these autobiographical media has created a new trauma aesthetics that is defined by a cautious (re)engagement with the real.

Table of contents

• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Trauma, Memory, Life Writing, and the Mediated Self in Contemporary Culture
• Chapter 2: Trauma and the Memoir Boom
• Chapter 3: Trauma in Graphic Memoirs
• Chapter 4: Trauma in Autobiographical Documentaries
• Chapter 5: Trauma in Autobiographical Video Games
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• Works Cited
• Index
• About the Author