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Introduction: War Capital Trauma

Introduction: War Capital Trauma The common agreement among the essays in this collection and our own work as conveners and editors is that for all its despoiled and tiresome qualities, the thing about trauma as concept or “theory” is that it has no substitute; nothing else stands by to replace the term or to focus our attention as it does.1 The time and space of the battlefield are everywhere and nowhere, and the fractal time of trauma exceeds notions that memory is contiguous or simple. In its century-old belief in the psychical roots of accidental or unjust suffering lies something that can help us to think again about endless warfare, predatory capitalisms, political malice, and unremitting, unmourned, and consequently, perhaps, otherwise incomprehensible violence. Yet what does the term trauma contribute to a political language? This question haunts the contributions to this thematic issue in substantially dif- doi 10.1215/10679847-2007-009 Copyright 2008 by Duke University Press ferent ways. That being the case, we have structured “War Capital Trauma” to clarify the stakes of the trauma concept. Some readers may feel discomfort about the propriety of the trauma concept, given its European lineage, in discussions of the damage endured in places that are not European http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png positions asia critique Duke University Press

Introduction: War Capital Trauma

positions asia critique , Volume 16 (1) – Mar 1, 2008

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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
© 2008 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1067-9847
eISSN
1067-9847
DOI
10.1215/10679847-2007-009
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The common agreement among the essays in this collection and our own work as conveners and editors is that for all its despoiled and tiresome qualities, the thing about trauma as concept or “theory” is that it has no substitute; nothing else stands by to replace the term or to focus our attention as it does.1 The time and space of the battlefield are everywhere and nowhere, and the fractal time of trauma exceeds notions that memory is contiguous or simple. In its century-old belief in the psychical roots of accidental or unjust suffering lies something that can help us to think again about endless warfare, predatory capitalisms, political malice, and unremitting, unmourned, and consequently, perhaps, otherwise incomprehensible violence. Yet what does the term trauma contribute to a political language? This question haunts the contributions to this thematic issue in substantially dif- doi 10.1215/10679847-2007-009 Copyright 2008 by Duke University Press ferent ways. That being the case, we have structured “War Capital Trauma” to clarify the stakes of the trauma concept. Some readers may feel discomfort about the propriety of the trauma concept, given its European lineage, in discussions of the damage endured in places that are not European

Journal

positions asia critiqueDuke University Press

Published: Mar 1, 2008

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