Beyond the Pale of the Past: Metamodernism and Trauma in the Contemporary Irish Novel
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2024-06-17
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en
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This master thesis reframes the representation and definition of trauma in metamodern modes of writing as they oscillate between (post)modernism and neo-romantic aesthetics, optimistic sincerity and pessimistic irony. Past, present, and future imaginaries collide in contemporary Irish fiction, emphasising a temporal tension between trauma and futurity. The intersection of contemporary crises and traumatic narratives indicates an intersubjective understanding of trauma that shapes a shared affective dimension between self and other, narrator and reader. Ultimately, the contemporary Irish novel provides evidence for the claim that metamodernism underestimates the lingering effects of a history shaped by individual and collective trauma, and minimises the significance of trauma responses generated by a crisis environment that extends into yet undefined futures. The future of metamodern theory thus depends on a horizon of traumatic hindsight that emphasises the temporal tensions between trauma and futurity, rather than a contemporary commitment to misplaced optimism and linear progress.
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