Early Modern Trauma

Europe and the Atlantic World

Erin Peters, Cynthia Richards

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781496227492
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early Modern History
• Index: History

The term trauma refers to a wound or rupture that disorients, causing suffering and fear. Trauma theory has been heavily shaped by responses to modern catastrophes, and as such trauma is often seen as inherently linked to modernity. Yet psychological and cultural trauma as a result of distressing or disturbing experiences is a human phenomenon that has been recorded across time and cultures. The long seventeenth century (1598–1715) has been described as a period of almost continuous warfare, and the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries saw the development of modern slavery, colonialism, and nationalism, and witnessed plagues, floods, and significant sociopolitical, economic, and religious transformation. In Early Modern Trauma editors Erin Peters and Cynthia Richards present a variety of ways early modern contemporaries understood and narrated their experiences. Studying accounts left by those who experienced extreme events increases our understanding of the contexts in which traumatic experiences have been constructed and interpreted over time and broadens our understanding of trauma theory beyond the contemporary Euro-American context while giving invaluable insights into some of the most pressing issues of today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Epigraph
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Reading Historical Trauma
• Part 1
• 1. Devastated Nature
• 2. Historicizing Rape Trauma
• 3. The Trauma of Self
• 4. Early Modern Ciphering and the Expression of Trauma
• 5. Soliciting Sympathy
• 6. Hans Sloane and the Melancholy Slave
• 7. Representations of Loss and Recovery in Unca Eliza Winkfield’s The Female American
• Part 2
• 8. Stories of Trauma in Early Modern Ireland
• 9. Trauma, Psychological Coercion, and Slaves Who Love Their Masters
• 10. Imperfect Enjoyments and Female Disappointments
• 11. Cultural Trauma, Exile, and the Birth of Jacobitism
• 12. Tragic Trauma?
• 13. Trauma, Ritual, and the Temporality of War in George Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer
• 14. For Those Who Did Not See It
• Afterword
• Contributors
• Index
• About Erin Peters
• About Cynthia Richards
• Series List