Presence in absence: Discourses and teaching (in, on, and about) trauma

IN WHAT MAY be called a traumatic turn, scholars from a variety of disciplines have focused unprecedented attention on trauma and discourses of trauma over the last couple of decades.² Through this turn, some scholars have gone so far as to claim that we are living in a time marked by trauma (La Capra xi), with others claiming we are in a "post-traumatic century" (Felman "Education" 1). As a partial warrant for these observations, scholars draw attention to the explosion of testimonies appearing in academic and popular presses, videos, television shows, and other digital media in the last 20 years or so (Berger). Consider, for instance, the long-running confessional talk shows of the likes of Sally Jesse Raphael, Montel, and Jerry Springer, and the more recent rise in popularity of court TV and reality TV shows as well the increase of trauma novels such as Toni Morrison's Beloved and documentaries such as Claude Lanzmann's 1987 Shoah. Consider as well that on July 31, 2002, just ten months after 9/11, Bruce Springsteen released his CD, The Rising-a tribute to 9/11.