Dreams and Atrocity: The Oneiric in Representations of Trauma

(Hardback)

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This volume examines the relationship between oneiric and historical episodes of atrocity as depicted in transnational twentieth and twenty first century art, film, literature and theatre.

Examining the political and aesthetic power harnessed by dreams in increasingly dark times, it takes as its starting point the overlooked significance granted to the oneiric beyond Freudian psychoanalysis. By reading the oneiric within variously known cultural texts including Holocaust fiction, world cinema, Bronx theatre, surrealist art and two collections of wartime dream transcriptions the volume also offers a renewed perspective on modern and contemporary trauma. In so doing, it demonstrates the relevance of the oneiric, beyond the interpretative framework of psychoanalysis, as an aesthetic and political tool with which to alert us and respond to the violence of our contemporary world.

Author Bio

Emily-Rose Baker is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Film in the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas

Diane Otosaka is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the University of Leeds