Empathy and the Phantasmic in Ethnic American Trauma Narratives

Download or read book Empathy and the Phantasmic in Ethnic American Trauma Narratives written by Stella Setka and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-05-19 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Empathy and the Phantasmic in Ethnic American Trauma Narratives examines a burgeoning genre of ethnic American literature called phantasmic trauma narratives, which use culturally specific modes of the supernatural to connect readers to historical traumas such as slavery and genocide. Drawing on trauma theory and using an ethnic studies methodology, this book shows how phantasmic novels and films present historical trauma in ways that seek to invite reader/viewer empathy about the cultural groups represented. In so doing, the author argues that these texts also provide models of interracial alliances to encourage contemporary cross-cultural engagement as a restorative response to historical traumas. Further, the author examines how these narratives function as sites of cultural memory that provide a critical purchase on the enormity of enslavement, genocide, and dispossession.