Trauma and Public Memory

'The genesis of this book is improbable: a peaceful regional city on the top of a range is washed by an inland tsunami. What surfaces in the aftermath are these diverse essays on public memory, communal identity and archives of feeling that mesh interviews and interdisciplinary critique in a transnational frame. This collection presents memory studies with a compelling new collection of historical and contemporary essays on trauma and its after-effects.' - Professor Gillian Whitlock FAHA, University of Queensland, Australia

'Trauma and Public Memory breaks the comfortable and distanced mold of media-circumscribed public memory and exposes us to the complex, contradictory, and seemingly ineffable ways in which personal experiences of the traumatic become collective ones. We read of events so challenging as to defy naming, of events so searing that public memory demands a reassuring narrative, the harm obscured. The editors have preserved the freshness and depth of the conversation among authors, and the unusual organizational scheme of coupling overview essays with interviews and concluding 'reflections' conveys the immediacy and vibrancy of the dialogue among contributors. This book deserves a wide readership and promises to shape the conversation for some time.' - Robert D. Hicks, Director, Mütter Museum/Historical Medical Library, Philadelphia, USA