Article published in:
Beyond Narrative CoherenceEdited by Matti Hyvärinen, Lars-Christer Hydén, Marja Saarenheimo and Maria Tamboukou
[Studies in Narrative 11] 2010
► pp. 147–166
Beyond narrative
The shape of traumatic testimony
Molly Andrews | University of East London, UK
This chapter will explore the limits and possibilities of narratives in which individuals turn to language to communicate the inexpressibility of experiences they have endured. The central dilemma for many survivors of trauma is that they must tell their stories, and yet their stories cannot be told. Traumatic experiences often defy understanding. Testimony of those who have survived can be marked by what is not there: coherence, structure, meaning, comprehensibility. The actual emplotment of trauma testimony into conventional narrative configurations — contained in time- transforms them into something which they are not: experiences which are endowed with a particular wholeness, which occurred in the past, and which have now ended. The paper concludes with a discussion of the relationship between language and silence in traumatic testimony.
Published online: 13 January 2010
https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.11.09and
https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.11.09and
Cited by
Cited by 15 other publications
Androutsopoulou, Athena & Maria-Marditsa Stefanou
Blix, Bodil H, Charlotte Berendonk & Vera Caine
Blix, Bodil H., Vera Caine, D. Jean Clandinin & Charlotte Berendonk
Devgan, Shruti
Immler, Nicole L.
Immler, Nicole L.
Kenny, Katherine, Alex Broom, Emma Kirby, David Wyld & Zarnie Lwin
Kokanović, Renata & Meredith Stone
Matthies-Boon, Vivienne
Mustafa, Balsam
Salmela, Mari & Satu Uusiautti
Santilli, Sara, Ilaria Di Maggio, Maria Cristina Ginevra, Laura Nota & Salvatore Soresi
Shuman, Amy & Carol Bohmer
Wilbraham, Lindy
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 05 june 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.