Incoming: Globalization, Disaster, Poetics

Uncanny Repetition, Trauma, and Displacement in Michael Cunningham's Specimen Days

“…11 On the other, as the 'inaugural trauma of the twenty-first century', 9/11 'decisively sutured globalisation and disaster into the defining symptom of our times' and may be seen as indicative of certain relations between trauma, global displacement, and colonial migration, that Cunningham wants to address in his work. 12 In other words, Cunningham's engagement with trauma seems to stem from his desire to critique certain processes traditionally associated with the American ideal, such as emigration and industrialization, and his representation of these processes as essentially traumatic is part of his critique.…”