Trauma and Dissociation in the Works and Life of Sebastian Barry

Niko Pomakis

• Publisher: LIT Verlag
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9783643964830
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Can language and literature cure psychological trauma? If so, what forms do they (have to) take in doing so? When does language hit the wall where the unspeakable mandates silence? And where might literature come in as the rescuing hand by offering forms of expression which are rooted in speech but transcend the merely spoken? This study confronts these issues through the double lenses of Sebastian Barry's œuvre and the complex of dissociative disorders that are at work both in his creative output and the ways in which he fictionalizes dark and traumatic biographical data. Dr. Niko Pomakis has studied Philosophy and English at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) and University College Dublin. He earned his PhD in English Literature at the FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• 1 Sebastian Barry, Restorer of Marginalised Histories
• 2 Trauma and Dissociation
• 3 Postmodernist Historiography and Historical Revisionism
• 4 Sebastian Barry’s Trauma Testimonials
• 5 The Paradoxical Dynamic of Post-Trauma In Barry
• 6 On Canaan’s Side: The Guilt of the Survivor and Identification with the Aggressor
• 7 The Secret Scripture: Dissociative Restagings or Tales From the Crypt
• 8 The Temporary Gentleman: Pathological Inferiority and Dissociative Identity Disorder
• 9 “When to Speak at all is a Betrayal of Something”: Sebastian Barry’s Dissociations
• Bibliography