Rising Voices in the Literary Page: September 11 and the Narrativization of Trauma

Abstract

Abstract The process of working through trauma has been as thoroughly delineated as the psychosomatic condition it intends to resolve, that is, as a three-step process traumatized individuals need to actively and consciously engage with in order to heal. If this is not carried out, the subject remains trapped in a traumatic loop that is further induced by the psychosomatic manifestations it paradoxically provokes. This was the case in the post-9/11 context, dominated by a perpetuation of trauma as a result of an official narrative of the attacks that left out the most horrifying unspeakable realities about the tragedy. This paper explores how 9/11 fiction reacted to the official retraumatization and acted as a therapeutic tool. It does so through a close reading of Don DeLillo’s and Jess Walter’s 9/11 novels as two texts that introduce the second step towards trauma healing – testimony – and of how their main characters struggle in their construction of their personal stories.1