Analyzing the Network of Traumas in Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin

Authors

  • Maartje Koschorreck University of Mannheim PhD Fellow Graduate Program "FORMATIONS OF THE GLOBAL: Welterfahrungen - Weltentwürfe - Weltöffentlichkeiten"

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5283/copas.253

Keywords:

Trauma novel, Network theory, Caruth, Links between traumas

Abstract

“Since classic Caruthian trauma theory cannot account for novels juxtaposing several historical traumas, this paper explores network theory as a new analytical approach to trauma narratives. A reading of Colum McCann’s novel Let the Great World Spin“ demonstrates how traumas become linked in a network and explores the effects of this trauma network on characters, readers, and main themes of the novel.

Author Biography

Maartje Koschorreck, University of Mannheim PhD Fellow Graduate Program "FORMATIONS OF THE GLOBAL: Welterfahrungen - Weltentwürfe - Weltöffentlichkeiten"

Maartje Koschorreck received a Magister degree in British / American Studies and Romance Languages at the University of Bremen in 2009. Since September 2012 she has been a doctoral fellow in the transdisciplinary graduate program Formations of the Global“ at the University of Mannheim.

Her dissertation focuses on anglophone and francophone novels which link different collective traumatic experiences from different historical and cultural contexts in the realm of one novel. It is based on the assumption that the development of a ‘multi-traumata’ literature reflects a global, only just emerging discursive trend which tries to find ways of representing equitably the multitude of omnipresent traumatic experiences in order to break with traditional hierarchies and paradigms. Since existing literary trauma theories cannot account for a juxtaposition of several traumas in the realm of one novel, other theoretical approaches, such as network theory and multidirectional memory, are tested for their productivity. Further research interests include, for example, concepts of historic injustice and diaspora culture.

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Published

2016-05-16

How to Cite

Koschorreck, Maartje. “Analyzing the Network of Traumas in Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin”. Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies, vol. 17, no. 1, May 2016, doi:10.5283/copas.253.

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2016)

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.