Trauma, Experience and Narrative in Europe after World War II

Description

This book promotes a historically and culturally sensitive understanding of trauma during and after World War II. Focusing especially on Eastern and Central Europe, its contributors take a fresh look at the experiences of violence and loss in 1939–45 and their long-term effects in different cultures and societies. The chapters analyze traumatic experiences among soldiers and civilians alike and expand the study of traumatic violence beyond psychiatric discourses and treatments. While acknowledging the problems of applying a present-day medical concept to the past, this book makes a case for a cultural, social and historical study of trauma. Moving the focus of historical trauma studies from World War I to World War II and from Western Europe to the east, it breaks new ground and helps to explain the troublesome politics of memory and trauma in post-1945 Europe all the way to the present day. This book is an outcome of a workshop project ‘Historical Trauma Studies,’ funded by the Joint Committee for the Nordic Research Councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS) in 2018–20. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com. Preface: Expanding the Field of Historical Trauma Studies Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures Part I: Comparative Approaches Chapter 1: The Limits of Trauma: Experience and Narrative in Europe c. 1945 Introduction The Long 1945 Histories of Traumatic Stress Narratives, Emotions, Experiences Cultural and Social Variation The Limits of Trauma Chapter 2: Beyond the Western Front Shell Shock as a Historiographical Success Story A New Present Requires a New Past The Varieties of Trauma Experience Trauma in the Age of Totalitarianism Part II: Case Studies Chapter 3: Testing the Silence: Trauma and Military Psychiatry in Soviet Russia and Ukraine During and After World War II Introduction Historiographical Context Scientific Discourses About War Trauma Soldiers’ Own Expressions of Trauma Treating Trauma After Demobilization Conclusion Chapter 4: Experiencing Trauma Before Trauma: Posttraumatic Memories, Nightmares and Flashbacks Among Finnish Soldiers Introduction Context, Questions, and Sources for Traumatic Memory Traumatic Memory in Military Psychiatry Haunted Dreams Posttraumatic Flashbacks and Cultural Products Concluding Remarks: Culture in Traumatic Experience Chapter 5: Entangled Bystanders: Multidimensional Trauma of Ethnic Cleansing and Mass Violence in Eastern Galicia Introduction Circles of Hell: Proximity of Violence At the Heart of Darkness: Towards Psychological Trauma Loss and Decay: Towards Collective (Communal) Trauma Living with the Dead: Long-Lasting Post-Traumatic Follow-Up Conclusions Chapter 6: Traumatized Children in Hungary After World War II Introduction Children as Victims The Psychology of Childhood Trauma Children as Sufferers A Child’s-Eye View Conclusion Chapter 7: “We will cry a little, but then we will forget”: Narratives of Loss and Victory in Postwar Yugoslavia Introduction Broken Soldiers on Film Suffering and Revolution Perpetrators Personal and National Traumas Chapter 8: Guilt, Responsibility and Trauma: Restoring the Moral Self-Image in Postwar Slovakia Introduction The Complicity of Slovakia The Long Shadows of World War II Restoring the Moral Self-Image The Heroic and Traumatic Past of a Communal Genocide Conclusion Chapter 9: “Perpetrator Trauma” in Memoirs of Veterans of the Polish Home Army Introduction The Polish Resistance Movement and Its Underground Judiciary The Postwar Public Discourse on the Resistance Movement The War Experience of “Liquidators” Confession Without Absolution A Tellable Veteran’s Life Conclusion Chapter 10: Environmental Trauma in the Narratives of Postwar Reconstruction: The Loss of Place and Identity in Northern Finland After World War II Introduction Environmental Trauma Connects to the Environmental Past The Connection Between People and Places Materials and Methods The Return to Destroyed Homelands Re-destruction of Lapland Impacts on Health and Wellbeing Transgenerational Aspects of Environmental Trauma Conclusions Chapter 11: Suicide Rates as a “Social Thermometer”: Reading the Traumatized History of Lithuania Introduction Sociological View of Suicide and Suicide Rate as Social Thermometer The Interwar Period and the Historical Traumas Due to World War II The Soviet Occupation and Liberation The Period of Radical Reforms Conclusion Part III: Coda Chapter 12: Towards a History of Trauma in Central and Eastern Europe After World War II: A Coda Introduction Methodological Pitfalls Trauma Before “Trauma” Toxic Therapy Where to from Here? Index