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Trauma, Temporality, and Testimony in Carolivia Herron’s "Thereafter Johnnie"
Rodi-Risberg, Marinella
2015
Abstract
This paper explores trauma in Carolivia Herron’s 'Thereafter Johnnie', which investigates the potential emancipation of the traumatized gendered and racialized daughter’s body from a nation-state born from a system of patriarchy and racism by conceiving of its apocalyptic demise and the birth of a new state through an the discourse of incest, paralleling present-day violations with the historical institution of slavery. Placing contemporary literary trauma theories in relation to African American literary criticism, this paper suggests that the black daughter’s body becomes a site of conflict between linear or historical and traumatic time, where trauma is encoded through violence, revealing a form of counter-historical temporality linked to corporeity as a form of corporeal testimony.
Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Source
Marinella Rodi-Risberg "Trauma, Temporality, and Testimony in Carolivia Herron’s 'Thereafter Johnnie'" in: Leonardo Buonomo and Elisabetta Vezzosi (edited by) "Discourses of Emancipation and the Boundaries of Freedom. Selected Papers from the 22nd AISNA Biennial International Conference", EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2015, pp.39-46
Languages
en
File(s)