In our contemporary cultural setting, the notion of “trauma” has been extended far beyond a clinical diagnosis and cultural trope into a signifier denoting a subjective reaction to experiences ranging from small grievances to large-scale tragedies. In a world where stories featuring traumatic subject matter have become part of our daily reading, is how we read, understand, and teach trauma still effective? This dissertation explores the ahistorical, subjective experience of trauma as represented in a selection of contemporary global literature, pushing back against canonical trauma literary theory posed by scholars such as Cathy Caruth and instead, suggests a new mode of reading traumatic representation. I argue that, by exploring both the wounded mind and the wounded body, with attention to the influence of the traumatic context and close-reading the nuance of the figurative language of representation, we have much new knowledge to gain. Additionally, as trauma narratives appear regularly in higher education as Common Reads and on literature class syllabi, this dissertation offers practical suggestions for a teaching of traumatic narratives which is sensitive to both the subject matter and the student audience. Chapter 1 begins by exploring contemporary, media-based accounts of trauma, highlighting the dangers of the fetishization and commodification of the traumatized body, particularly traumatized bodies of color, before discussing two examples of public trauma performance: Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo, a national protest against the “disappearing” of dissentients of Argentina’s “Dirty War” and Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight), a work of endurance performance art by former Columbia student Emma Sulkowicz. Chapter 2 provides a comprehensive overview of the interdisciplinary study of trauma and the main arguments and criticisms of literary trauma theory, including the marginalization of non-Western trauma, the prioritization of a Western understanding of trauma and recovery, the emphasizing of traumatic representation through a Modernist, fragmented approach, and the disregarding of the connections between Western and non-Western traumas. From this foundation, I pose my own approach for reading and teaching trauma narratives, suggesting that by close reading trauma in context, with the inclusion of the traumatized body, readers and students more effectively understand trauma and traumatic situations and therefore, are better prepared as global citizens. Chapters 3-5 then demonstrates my application of this lens to a selection of texts, exploring the trauma of both well-known novels and unknown novels and memoirs. Chapter 3 centers on war trauma in Hanan al-Shaykh's Beirut Blues (1992), Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost (2000) and Nora Okja Keller’s Fox Girl (2002) in an effort to extend war trauma discussions to the unheard voices of non-combatants. Chapter 4 explicates the notion of intergenerational trauma, time, and memory before offering a new and potentially fresh reading of Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1988), a novel heralded as the preeminent example of the trauma narrative genre, Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) and Terese Marie Mailhot’s Heart Berries: A Memoir (2018), concluding that intergenerational trauma manifests in different ways within different marginalized populations. In Chapter 5, I address the mind-body split heralded by canonical trauma theory, focusing on the body as a “text” of cultural trauma, and then apply the theory to critical readings of the traumatized and othered bodies of Edwidge Danicat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994) and Fadia Faqir’s The Cry of the Dove (2007). In sum, I emphasized looking both looking at the trauma trope and beyond it. It is my hope that this evolved understanding will have broad applications for reading trauma narratives, as using this mode of inquiry will more fully achieve active witnessing, especially when reading non-Western literature. I conclude by offering a pragmatic, theoretical approach for teaching trauma narratives which connects trauma to historical or cultural context and therefore, offers a greater avenue for education about experiences which may be very different than one’s own experiences. / English

This qualitative, action research study was guided by two primary research questions. First, how do students negotiate aesthetic, efferent, and critical stances when reading a novel set in Afghanistan? Second, how do aesthetic and efferent stances contribute to or hinder the adoption of a critical stance? A large body of research exists that examines student responses to literature, and much of that research is based on the transactional theory of reading. However, it remains unclear how critical literacy fits into this theory. This study describes how one group of high school students’ aesthetic and efferent responses to a novel set in Afghanistan supported their development of critical stances. Six students enrolled in a ninth-grade English course participated in this study. Data were collected for 13 weeks. Data included two individual interviews with each student, student writing assignments in the form of 6 assigned journal entries and 7 assigned essays, transcriptions of 12 class discussions, field notes, lesson plans, a teacher researcher journal, and research memos. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Three major findings emerged from this study. First, class discussions provided a context for students to adopt stances that were not evident in their individual written responses to the novel, which were completed prior to the discussions. Second, the discussions provided scaffolding that helped several of the students adopt world-efferent and critical stances. Third, both the aesthetic and the efferent stances contributed to students’ adoption of critical stances.

Engagement with global children's literature is an effective way to introduce multiple perspectives into the classroom dialogue. Yet teachers are often unfamiliar with ways of helping students understand diverse cultural practices and beliefs. The result is that global children's literature continues to be an underused resource. This action research study looked at 25 highly diverse educator study groups as they used global literature with pre-K - 12 students. The goal was to support the development of intercultural understanding. The study groups received $1,000 grants from Worlds of Words (wowlit.org) to fund their yearlong inquiry. The groups met face-to-face throughout the year to reflect on the interactions taking place in their classrooms. All groups met online on a members-only site. Data collected included proposals, reports, teacher vignettes, and interviews. The data was used to document range of study group structures and interactions with global literature. The study groups and online forum were supported by a grant from the Longview Foundation. Through constant comparative analysis, new transformative understandings were identified. Key elements in the development of intercultural understanding included open inquiry, recognition of complexity and multiple perspectives, thinking about culture at a conceptual level, and engaging in open dialogue. Teachers reported an increased understanding of their competence as professionals, their student's competence as problem-posers and thinkers, and the parents' competence as important contributors to intercultural understanding. The study concludes with implications for practitioners wanting to engage in classroom inquiries using global literature to support developing intercultural understanding. A second set of implications suggests ways in which the study group process can be made more effective. New questions are proposed for future research related to the use of global literature in various contexts, including classrooms, online professional development, and libraries.