Trauma, Gender and Ethics in the Works of E.L. Doctorow

María Ferrández San Miguel is a lecturer at the Department of English and German Studies (University of Zaragoza). Her work has been published in journals such as Atlantis, The Nordic Journal of English Studies and Orbis Litterarum, and in volumes such as Memory Frictions: Conflict, Negotiation, Politics (Palgrave MacMillan).

"On the whole, Trauma, Gender and Ethics in the Works of E.L. Doctorow is a remarkable and exceedingly well-researched study that reads E.L. Doctorow’s literature through an innovative and intricate lens. Apart from the exquisite writing style, one of the book’s greatest virtues lies in its theoretical exuberance, which constitutes an essential tool to navigate the analysis and understating of the novels discussed. It is a brilliant study offering compelling and insightful material that should prove to be of great interest to lovers of literature and specialists in the fields of feminist and trauma studies."Eva Pelayo Sañudo, Universidad de Cantabria, NexusAs its title suggests, this book is more ideological study than literary explication. Ferrández San Miguel (Univ. of Zaragoza, Spain) looks at particular texts by Doctorow—Welcome to Hard Times, The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, and City of God—and uses them to study trauma theory and feminist theory in Doctorow's work. (She explains in detail why she selected these particular titles.) The author casts Doctorow as a postmodernist—for example, Welcome to Hard Times is “post-Western"; Ragtime shows that social and economic structures “perpetuate the victimization of the underprivileged and the disenfranchised.” Doctorow's narrative is marked by some genre hopping and manipulation—for example, in The Book of Daniel Daniel speaks to the reader at the scene of the electrocution. The author has stated that fiction can be fact, and in so being becomes its own truth. This study illustrates how trauma helps the reader understand the eventual purpose of a narrative. The volume includes chapter endnotes and extensive bibliographies and is free of pretentious prose. Summing Up: Recommended.--A. Hirsh, emeritus, Central Connecticut State University

• IntroductionChapter 1. Welcome to Hard Times; the Frontier Reconsidered Shame, Guilt, Violence and TraumaIn Search for a New Gender OrderDiscussion and ConclusionChapter 2. The Book of Daniel; a Memoir Gone AwryThe Trauma of a Grievous PastGender Oppression and/as PowerDiscussion and ConclusionChapter 3. Ragtime; Remembering the FutureTrauma and ResilienceThe Politics of GenderDiscussion and ConclusionChapter 4. City of God; with Eyes Past All GriefFictionalizing the HolocaustVoicing GenderDiscussion and ConclusionChapter 5. Discussion; the Ethics and Politics of LiteratureConclusion