Beyond narrative
-
Molly Andrews
Abstract
This chapter will explore the limits and possibilities of narratives in which individuals turn to language to communicate the inexpressibility of experiences they have endured. The central dilemma for many survivors of trauma is that they must tell their stories, and yet their stories cannot be told. Traumatic experiences often defy understanding. Testimony of those who have survived can be marked by what is not there: coherence, structure, meaning, comprehensibility. The actual emplotment of trauma testimony into conventional narrative configurations — contained in time- transforms them into something which they are not: experiences which are endowed with a particular wholeness, which occurred in the past, and which have now ended. The paper concludes with a discussion of the relationship between language and silence in traumatic testimony.
Abstract
This chapter will explore the limits and possibilities of narratives in which individuals turn to language to communicate the inexpressibility of experiences they have endured. The central dilemma for many survivors of trauma is that they must tell their stories, and yet their stories cannot be told. Traumatic experiences often defy understanding. Testimony of those who have survived can be marked by what is not there: coherence, structure, meaning, comprehensibility. The actual emplotment of trauma testimony into conventional narrative configurations — contained in time- transforms them into something which they are not: experiences which are endowed with a particular wholeness, which occurred in the past, and which have now ended. The paper concludes with a discussion of the relationship between language and silence in traumatic testimony.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Beyond narrative coherence 1
- Weird stories 17
- Identity, self, narrative 33
- ‘Mind-reading’, a method for understanding the broken narrative of an aphasic man 49
- Broken narratives, visual forces 67
- Artists-in-progress 87
- Breaking of self-narrative as a means of reorientation? 103
- “There is no fear in my lexicon” vs. “You are not normal if you won’t be scared” 121
- Beyond narrative 147
- Afterword 167
- Index 191
- List of contributors 187
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Beyond narrative coherence 1
- Weird stories 17
- Identity, self, narrative 33
- ‘Mind-reading’, a method for understanding the broken narrative of an aphasic man 49
- Broken narratives, visual forces 67
- Artists-in-progress 87
- Breaking of self-narrative as a means of reorientation? 103
- “There is no fear in my lexicon” vs. “You are not normal if you won’t be scared” 121
- Beyond narrative 147
- Afterword 167
- Index 191
- List of contributors 187
