In my doctoral dissertation I study how different types of trauma are described in modern literature and how trauma fiction can help us readers understand the private and cultural traumas of our own reality. I focus on how several traumas that intersect with each other affect the characters, and especially their narrative identities, in my subject novels. The novels I study include Atemschaukel (The Hunger Angel) by Herta Müller, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong and Hävitys. Tapauskertomus (“Destruction. A case study”) by Iida Rauma.

My goal is to join together intersectional trauma studies and narrative hermeneutics, and thereby create a strong theoretical background through which it is possible to inspect trauma as a part of both a novel as a whole and of a character inside a work of fiction. Combining two separate fields of study allows me to bring forth new sides of both those theoretical fields and also the novels I study through them. My dissertation will add into the field of literary trauma studies a more intersectional way to read trauma fiction and analyze the effects trauma has on narrative identity.

My doctoral research is funded by Kone Foundation.