Probing the limits of classic trauma representation: The juxtaposition of traumas in the contemporary American novel

The thesis examines contemporary US-American novels which juxtapose several collective traumatic memories. Close readings of the novels "What You Owe Me" by Bebe Moore Campbell (2001), "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer (2006), "Let the Great World Spin" by Colum McCann (2009), and "Great House" by Nicole Krauss (2010) carve out how different collective historical traumas such as 9/11, the Vietnam War, the Holocaust, and slavery are depicted within the same novel and to what effect the juxtaposition is undertaken, i.e. if commonalities or differences are suggested or if the outcome is left open. The thesis also discusses which position the novels take up in the discourses on the incomparability or hierarchization of traumas. As analytical tools, the thesis applies not only classic trauma studies approaches, as they were established by Cathy Caruth, but also concepts which hitherto have not been applied to study trauma fiction, i.e. network theory and psychogeography, thereby pointing out benefits and limits of the classic trauma discourse