Post-Apocalyptic Fiction As Trauma Narrative
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WHEN APOCALYPSE STRIKES: Post-Apocalyptic Fiction as Trauma Narrative An Examination of Trauma in Post-9/11 Short Fiction MASTERARBEIT zur Erlangung des Mastergrades an der Kultur- und Gesellschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Salzburg Fachbereich Anglistik und Amerikanistik Gutachterin: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr. Hanna Wallinger eingereicht von: TANJA GALLEY Salzburg 2018 Eidesstattliche Erklärung Ich erkläre hiermit eidesstattlich [durch meine eigenhändige Unterschrift], dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbständig verfasst und keine anderen als die angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel verwendet habe. Alle Stellen, die wörtlich oder inhaltlich den angegebenen Quellen entnommen wurden, sind als solche kenntlich gemacht. Die vorliegende Arbeit wurde bisher in gleicher oder ähnlicher Form noch nicht als Bachelor-/ Master-/ Diplomarbeit/ Dissertation eingereicht. 20. April 2018, CONTENTS 1. Imagining the End: The Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic Interest ….……………. 1 2. When the World Goes Quiet: Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic Fiction.….………. 4 2.1. Defining Genre .………………………………………….……...…………… 4 2.2. Science Fiction & Speculative Fiction ………………………………………. 6 2.3. Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic Fiction ……………………………………. 8 2.4. History & Functions .………….………………………………………...…… 10 2.5. Post-Apocalyptic Genre Conventions .……………………….………...……. 20 3. Small but Effective: The (Post-Apocalyptic) Short Story ………………………… 24 4. What It Means to Survive: Trauma & the End of the World ……...……………… 32 4.1. The Post-Apocalypse as Trauma Narrative .…………………………….…… 33 4.2. History of Trauma Studies …….…………………………….………………. 36 4.3. Types of Trauma ……….……………………………………………………. 40 4.3.1. Psychological Trauma ………………………………………………… 40 4.3.2. Collective Trauma ……….……………………………………………. 45 4.4. The Trauma of 9/11 …………………………………….……………………. 48 5. Analyzing the Post-Apocalypse: Trauma & Survival in Post-9/11 Short Fiction … 52 5.1. James Van Pelt’s “A Flock of Birds” ………….…….…….………………… 53 5.2. Richard Kadrey’s “Still Life with Apocalypse” …….………………………. 62 5.3. Gene Wolfe’s “Mute” ……………….………....……………………………. 69 5.4. Carol Emshwiller’s “Killers” …….………………………………….………. 77 5.5. Mary Rickert’s “Bread and Bombs” ………………………………………… 87 6. Conclusion ………………………………………………………...……………… 97 Works Cited …………………………………………………………………………. 99 Apocalypse has come and gone. We’re just grubbing in the ashes. —Samuel R. Delany, Dhalgren INTRODUCTION Destructive natural disasters, unforeseen terror attacks, senseless wars, and the loss of loved ones—these are all events that have happened to individual human beings as well as collectives throughout history. Due to their impact on the lives of those affected, catastrophes as such resemble small apocalypses, for they always bring an end to something and cause traumas in their survivors. What they also do is make modern civilization aware of its own fragility and the consequences of its ignorance, while providing a frightening outlook on how life on earth could end one day. Yet, it is not just the uncertainty about how the world might fall into pieces which evokes unease, but rather what will become of humanity after the apocalypse when everything has gone quiet and social structures have disappeared. Hence, what is feared most is not dying but surviving the end of the world and coping with its (psychological) aftermaths in the post-apocalypse that follows. Imagining how such after-the-end scenarios could look like is the concern of post- apocalyptic authors, who create fictional post-apocalypses to work through their individual or collective (historical) traumas. In this regard, post-apocalyptic writings can be regarded both as symptoms of trauma as well as means of recovery, which is what eventually makes them trauma narratives. In fact, it is often the narrators or main characters of such fictional post-apocalyptic stories who suffer trauma and must cope with its psychological effects and, like that, reflect the author’s own emotional state or that of a collective or population after being struck by an apocalyptic event. One such life-changing cataclysm took place on 11th September 2001, when the United States fell victim to terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the wake of this disaster, many American writers were concerned with the psychological and collective aftermaths of the catastrophe and reacted to it by imagining (alternative) post-apocalyptic scenarios. Fears and anxiety in the U.S. population were further fueled by the subsequent war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, whose horrors also made authors reflect on its impact on individuals as well as the collective American psyche. Based on psychological and collective trauma theory, the aim of this master’s thesis is thus to investigate how the traumatic aftermaths of 9/11 are addressed and portrayed by authors of post-9/11 short fiction. For the analysis, five post-apocalyptic stories have been chosen, which either represent reactions to the events of that day or the subsequent war on terror, and include James Van Pelt’s “A Flock of Birds” (2002), Richard Kadrey’s “Still Life with Apocalypse” (2002), Gene Wolfe’s “Mute” (2002), Mary Emshwiller’s “Killers” (2006), and Mary Rickert’s “Bread and Bombs” (2003). The stories have been analyzed regarding their post-apocalyptic setting and plot as well as their depiction of traumatic experiences, trauma symptoms, and coping behavior of the (main) characters and narrators. Considering James Berger’s study on representations of post-apocalypse, the first chapter of this thesis represents a short introductory chapter on the apocalyptic and post- apocalyptic interest (in modern society and literature) and its enduring popularity throughout the centuries. Subsequently, the second chapter comprises a discussion of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, its history and functions, as well as an outline of the most common post-apocalyptic genre conventions. As the focus of this thesis lies on post-9/11 short fiction, the third chapter provides information on the literary form of the short story, its history, as well as its predestination for the representation of trauma. In the subsequent fourth chapter on trauma, the theoretical framework for the analysis of the selected short stories will be outlined, including subchapters on the post-apocalypse as trauma narrative, the history of trauma studies, and the specific types of psychological and collective trauma that have been identified in the analyzed stories. As transition to the practical part of this thesis, the last part of the fourth chapter deals with the trauma of 9/11. Thus, what the fifth chapter comprises are the analyses of the five post-9/11 short stories in terms of their use of post-apocalyptic genre conventions as well as their thematization and depiction of collective and psychological trauma. In the concluding sixth chapter, the outcome of the analysis will be discussed, which is followed by a final statement on the future of post-apocalyptic fiction as trauma narrative. 1 1. Imagining the End: THE APOCALYPTIC & POST-APOCALYPTIC INTEREST The apocalypse is not something which is coming. The apocalypse has arrived in major portions of the planet and it’s only because we live within a bubble of incredible privilege and social insulation that we still have the luxury of anticipating the apocalypse. —Terence McKenna Since the beginning of civilization, the notion of a cataclysm leading to the extinction of life on earth has been a primordial fear of mankind. What causes discomfort about such an event is the uncertainty about when and how the world could end as well as the inability to predict the future and see if something would remain. Yet, history has shown that apocalyptic events have already taken place and eventually stirred interest in imagining the actual end of civilization and its aftermath. In literature, it is authors of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction who dare to think the unthinkable, and the various endings and future worlds they create are just as diverse as their traumatized survivors. In fact, throughout history, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction has been written to level criticism against existing social orders and reflect people’s fears and anxieties about the effects of contemporary events on the future. Because of the fact that this kind of literature often succeeds traumatic events and times of hardship, James Berger considers (post-) apocalyptic writing itself as “a remainder, a symptom, an aftermath of some disorienting catastrophe” (7). Originating from the ancient Greek word “apokálypsis”, which denotes revelation or uncovering, the meaning of the term apocalypse has been extended to other disciplines throughout history, including the social sciences. Berger defines apocalypse in three ways, namely that it either refers to The End (the eschaton as depicted in the New Testament), resembles the end (catastrophes such as the Holocaust or 9/11) or explains the end, for “the apocalyptic event must in its destructive moment clarify and illuminate the true nature of what has been brought to an end” (5). In this regard, Berger implies that the world that follows is concerned with what was before in order not to make the same mistakes and, like that, establish a new order. Concerning such representations, he furthermore highlights that even though notions of the apocalypse denote the end, there never is the actual end, for “the apocalyptic text announces and describes the end of the world, but then the text does not 2 end, nor does the world