Conference "Trauma and Healing: Storying Lives, Literary Engagements, Entangled Memories"

15th International Conference of the Estonian Association of Comparative Literature "Trauma and Healing: Storying Lives, Literary Engagements, Entangled Memories" will be held on June 8-9, 2023.

The conceptual framework of trauma has played an immense role in critical inquiry and memory studies for many decades. Russian full-scale military aggression against Ukraine that started on February 24, 2022 that has claimed the lives of thousands of civilians and has brought about the most extensive humanitarian crisis of the 21^st century, forcibly displacing nearly half of the Ukrainian population, brings the notion of trauma into focus with particular urgency. Not only does it merit the revision of existing frameworks and approaches and weigh their applicability in the context of the massive impact of the war in Ukraine but it also calls forth the necessity of developing new frameworks and approaches of supporting coping and healing.

With a focus on both individual and collective memory, large-scale historical events as well as those concerning the commonplace contexts of everyday life, involving, for instance, domestic violence, sexual abuse and social marginalization, which are closely related to and depend on social and political regulations and cultural discourses, the development of trauma studies as a field of cultural enquiry has been shaped by a close affinity to the theoretical frameworks of psychoanalysis, post-structuralism and deconstruction. The universal applicability of such theoretical framework of has been called into doubt by scholars working on global, non-Western contexts who highlight the need to consider the ways in which cultural difference impacts the manner of mediating trauma. Among the current advancements within the more inclusive paradigm of trauma, approaches geared towards contributing to the process of healing from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) play an increasingly important role.
A special section of the conference is dedicated to the war in Ukraine with a focus on representation of the experience of the war in literature, visual media and life writing.

The main working language is English, poster presentations are welcome also in Spanish, French or German.

Please send a proposal of 250-300 words and a short bio of about 100 words to evka2023korraldus@lists.ut.ee

Panel proposals are also welcome. The deadline for panel proposals is March 15, 2023 and individual proposals March 25, 2023.  Acceptance notices will be sent by April 10, 2023.

More information about the conference you can find HERE.