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Trauma: A Social Theory PDF

242 Pages·2012·1.04 MB·English
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TRAUMA For Ron Eyerman TRAUMA A Social Theory JEFFREY C. ALEXANDER polity Copyright © Jeffrey C. Alexander 2012 The right of Jeffrey C. Alexander to be identifi ed as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 2012 by Polity Press Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK Polity Press 350 Main Street Malden, MA 02148, USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 978–0–7456–4911–5 (hardback) ISBN-13: 978–0–7456–4912–2 (paperback) A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset in 10.5 on 12 pt Sabon by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Group Limited, Bodmin, Cornwall The publisher has used its best endeavors to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate. Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition. For further information on Polity, visit our website: www.politybooks.com CONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgments vi Introduction 1 1 Cultural Trauma: A Social Theory 6 2 Holocaust and Trauma: Moral Universalism in the West 31 3 Holocaust and Trauma: Moral Restriction in Israel (with Shai M. Dromi) 97 4 Mass Murder and Trauma: Nanjing and the Silence of Maosim (with Rui Gao) 118 5 Partition and Trauma: Repairing India and Pakistan 136 6 Globalization and Trauma: The Dream of Cosmopolitan Peace 155 Notes 166 References 207 Index 222 v PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book has its origins in the ferment of an intellectual project begun in Palo Alto almost fi fteen years ago under the auspices of the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences. Ron Eyerman, Bernhard Giesen, Neil Smelser, and Piotr Sztmpka were co-creators, and our different lines of shared thinking eventually formed the chap- ters of Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity (Alexander, Eyerman, Giesen, Smelser, and Sztompka 2004). The cultural trauma project has continued in the years since, with many new contributors (see, e.g., Goodman 2009; Eyerman, Alexander, and Breese 2011). From the beginning of this project until today it has been my privilege to collaborate closely with Ron Eyerman, whose theoretical and empiri- cal investigations into cultural trauma (Eyerman 2001, 2008, and 2011) have been immensely stimulating to my own, and with whom I have directed (along with Philip Smith) the Yale Center for Cultural Sociology. I dedicate this volume to Ron Eyerman with gratitude for the generosity of his thinking, collegiality, and friendship. And, as so often before, I also wish to record my indebtedness to Nadine Amalfi for her editorial assistance in the preparation of this volume. The chapters that follow have been revised in small or large part for publication here. I thank the following publishers for permission to reprint: University of California Press for “Towards a Theory of Cultural Trauma.” In J. C. Alexander et al., Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity. 2004. (Chapter 1) Oxford University Press for “On the Social Construction of Moral Universals: The ‘Holocaust’ from Mass Murder to Trauma Drama.” In J. C. Alexander (ed.) Remembering the Holocaust: A Debate. 2009. (Chapter 2) vi preface and acknowledgments Paradigm Publishers for “Trauma Construction and Moral Restriction: The Ambiguity of the Holocaust for Israel” (with Shai Dromi). In R. Eyerman et al. (eds) Narrating Trauma: On the Impact of Collective Suffering. 2011. (Chapter 3) Peking University Press for “Remembrance of Things Past: Cultural Trauma, The Nanking Massacre, and Chinese Identity” (with Rui Gao). In Peking–Yale University Conference Publication on Tradition and Modernity: Comparative Perspectives. 2007. (Chapter 4) Routledge for “Postcolonialism, Trauma, and Civil Society: A New Understanding.” In S. Koniordos et al. (eds) Confl ict, Citizenship and Civil Society. 2009. (Chapter 5) Springer for “Globalization as Collective Representation: The New Dream of a Cosmopolitan Civil Sphere.” In I. Rossi (ed.) Frontiers of Globalization Research: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches. 2007. (Chapter 6) vii “The essence of drama: what will happen, who suffer, who not suffer, what turn be determined, what crisis created, what issue found?” — Henry James

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In this book Jeffrey C. Alexander develops an original social theory of trauma and uses it to carry out a series of empirical investigations into social suffering around the globe.Alexander argues that traumas are not merely psychological but collective experiences, and that trauma work plays a key
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