In English.

Originally presented as doctoral dissertation, University of Zurich, 2012.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 323-345).

Introduction : towards a reconceptualization of trauma -- Theorizing trauma : Romantic and postmodern perspectives on mental wounds -- The "wounded mind" : feminism, trauma, and self-narration in Mary Wollstonecraft's The wrongs of woman -- Anatomizing the "demons of hatred" : traumatic loss and mental illness in William Godwin's Mandeville -- A tragedy of incest : trauma, identity, and performativity in Mary Shelley's Mathilda -- Polluted daughters : incestuous abuse and the postmodern tragic in Jane Smiley's A thousand acres -- Inheriting trauma : family bonds and memory ties in Anne Michaels's Fugitive pieces -- The body of evidence : family history, guilt, and recovery in Trezza Azzopardi's The hiding place.

Trauma has become a hotly contested topic in literary studies. But interest in trauma is not new; its roots extend to the Romantic period, when novelists and the first psychiatrists influenced each others' investigations of the "wounded mind". This book looks back to these early attempts to understand trauma, reading a selection of Romantic novels in dialogue with Romantic and contemporary psychiatry. It then carries that dialogue forward to postmodern fiction, examining further how empirical approaches can deepen our theorizations of trauma. Within an interdisciplinary framework, this study reveals fresh insights into the poetics, politics, and ethics of trauma fiction.

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