T Is for Trauma
T Is for Trauma
The Children’s Literature of Atrocity
This chapter focuses on a trend that psychoanalyst Elizabeth Baer calls “literature of atrocity’ for children”, which is Holocaust centered and influenced by the themes and conceits of psychoanalysis. Trauma writing is a combination of literary and psychological discourse, in which certain kinds of trauma takes priority. The chapter examines young adult Holocaust novels styled after fairy tales, and picturebooks about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Young adult Holocaust narrative marks trauma as having happened elsewhere in time or space, while the 9/11 picturebooks construct Americans as innocent victims or “infantile citizens.”
Keywords: Elizabeth Baer, literature of atrocity, psychoanalysis, trauma writing, young adult Holocaust novels, fairy tales, 9/11 picturebooks
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