Trauma Studies and Literature

Starting from an interdisciplinary theoretical investigation of trauma, the book analyzes the relationship between Trauma Studies and literature. In particular, it focuses on Martin Amis’s novel Time’s Arrow, where the breakdown of chronology, coherence and predictability mimics the collapse of temporality and the crisis of truth caused by trauma in the individual’s mind. Amis’s novel reproduces the shocking force of trauma through a shocking narrative form in order to avoid indifference and favour an empathetic and ethically committed reaction on the part of readers. For these reasons, Time’s Arrow represents a significant example of trauma fiction.