Words and Wounds

Sean Akerman is a poet, novelist, and writer of non-fiction. He earned his PhD in psychology from the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and he has held faculty appointments at Hunter College, Sarah Lawrence College, and Bennington College. His other books include: the novel, Outposts (Threekookaburras); the novella, Krakow (Harvard Square Editions); and the poetry collection, The Magnitudes (Main Street Rag Publications). He lives in the North Woods near Lake Superior's south shore, where he is a research associate at the Center for Rural Communities at Northland College.

In this engaging, insightful, and beautifully crafted book, Sean Akerman deeply examines the construct exile. He recounts his research on four lives lived within a challenging and complex history of forced exile, offering insight into the ongoing personal experience of political and cultural obliteration that rippled out across generations affter China's 1950 invasion and subsequent occupation of Tibet. Throughout, he draws on the rich history of narrative psychology to candidly reflect on the ethical, empirical, and interpretive challenges of fully grasping and representing the experience of intergenerational displacement across decades and continents.

• Acknowledgements Preface Introduction Chapter 1: The Narrative Complexity of History Chapter 2: The Shape of Narrative Identity in Exile Chapter 3: Personal Narratives and the Creation of a Political Voice Chapter 4: The Rhetoric of Narrative Work Chapter 5: Ethical and Interpretive Stances in Narrative WorkChapter 6: Reflections Epilogue