Title: A Cultural Approach to the Trauma Novel

Abstract: When the novel represents an event, its aim is to represent aesthetic concepts with historical responsibility rather than the historical truth or the event per se. In the novel, the representation of the event is, very often, permeated with historical facts with the help of novel forms. This article attempts to define the trauma novel as a new subgenre of the novel via analyses and classification of subject matter, theme, and style. In doing so, this article asserts that the trauma novel not only anticipates a promising new genre of the novel, but also plays a significant role in the study of cultural trauma.

Keywords: genre, memory, trauma novel, cultural trauma

Author: Yu Liu, Associate Professor, College of International Studies, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.