Trauma in the Pop Cultural Imagination
Visions
of trauma saturate global popular culture, ranging
from re-imaginings of real-world historical events to fantasies of
apocalypse. This course explores one of pop culture’s most enduring
themes through the study of literature, comics, and cinema produced from
the
1980s through the present day. Students in this course will examine
how cultural artifacts produced by different creators and at different
moments
in contemporary global history engage with both traumatic memory and the
anticipation of traumatic return. They will also explore a variety of
theoretical approaches to the study of trauma, as well as engaging with
important global political developments and cultural phenomena of the
contemporary period.
