Beyond Singularity: Rehabilitating the Trauma Narrative

Abstract

Representing the Hegelian dialectic of the trauma narrative, this article identifies the anti-realist mode of representation as an avenue for the achievement of the real. The works of prominent scholars such as Sigmund Freud and Cathy Caruth establish the essential incomprehensibility of trauma. However, the dominant discourse in Trauma Studies poses problems to historical understanding, namely singularity. In response, John Sanbonmatsu offers his theory of the holocaust sublime, proposing the realist mode of representation as an antidote to singularity and as a means of promoting a productive relationship with the past. Expanding on Sanbonmatsu’s work, this article identifies the unique capacities of the anti-realist mode of representation to relay the truth of trauma, the “truth as it seemed” in the words of Tim O’Brien. Rather than pitting the real against the anti-real, this article argues that in conjunction with realist trauma narratives, the anti-realist mode of representation has the capacity to promote a cognitive and emotional connection with trauma, the narrative success of which can be measured, primarily, through its capacity to humanize.