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Palgrave Macmillan

Trauma in American Popular Culture and Cult Texts, 1980-2020

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Authors:
  1. Sean Travers

    1. Cork, Ireland

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  • First full length study of trauma in contemporary American popular culture
  • Pioneering interdisciplinary methodology blends trauma theory with fields outside psychoanalytic theory
  • Diverse range of writers, genres and media examined

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. Introduction

    • Sean Travers
    Pages 1-15

  3. Trauma and Postmodernism: Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining

    • Sean Travers
    Pages 17-53

  4. Competitive Narration: Tim Burton’s Batman Returns and David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks

    • Sean Travers
    Pages 55-92

  5. Polynarration: The Wachowskis’ Sense8, Rebecca Sugar’s Steven Universe and Nia DaCosta’s Candyman

    • Sean Travers
    Pages 93-130

  6. Sceptical Scriptotherapy: Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij’s The OA and Sam Esmai’s Mr Robot

    • Sean Travers
    Pages 131-164

  7. Perpetrator Trauma in Video Games: Dan Salvato’s Doki Doki Literature Club and Toby Fox’s Undertale

    • Sean Travers
    Pages 165-196

  8. Conclusion

    • Sean Travers
    Pages 197-201

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 203-257
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Keywords

About this book

This book examines trauma in late twentieth- and twenty-first century American popular culture. Trauma has become a central paradigm for reading contemporary American culture. Since the early 1980s, an extensive range of genres increasingly feature traumatised protagonists and traumatic events. From traumatised superheroes in Hollywood blockbusters to apocalyptic-themed television series, trauma narratives abound. 

Although trauma is predominantly associated with high culture, this project shows how popular culture has become the most productive and innovative area of trauma representation in America. Examining film, television, animation, video games and cult texts, this book develops a series of original paradigms through which to understand trauma in popular culture. These include: popular trauma texts’ engagement with postmodern perspectives, formal techniques termed ‘competitive narration’, ‘polynarration’ and ‘sceptical scriptotherapy’, and perpetrator trauma in metafictional games. 

Authors and Affiliations

  • Cork, Ireland

    Sean Travers

About the author

‘Dr Sean Travers is an independent scholar based in Cork, Ireland. She obtained her PhD in University College Cork and has published several articles about trauma, popular culture, postmodernism, and American literature and culture.’

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Trauma in American Popular Culture and Cult Texts, 1980-2020

  • Authors: Sean Travers

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13287-2

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-13286-5Published: 14 October 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-13289-6Published: 15 October 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-13287-2Published: 13 October 2022

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 257

  • Number of Illustrations: 4 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Popular Culture , American Cinema and TV, Contemporary Literature

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