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One of the most important features of literature, both fiction and non-fiction, is that it engenders resonance between the reader and the text. A good book has something important to say and reaches out for dialogue with the reader and her own thoughts and ideas. This book is based on the papers of an academic conference, ‘Trauma and Memory: Cross-Cultural Perspectives’ held at the University of New South Wales in 1998. As such, it will certainly appeal to like-minded scholars and should find its way on to reading lists for cultural and social studies students. The language used by many of the contributors may seem alien to non-academic clinicians so that its pearls may get lost in translation. It may not appeal to a wide readership for this reason as well as the disturbing nature of its subject matter. But it contains much of potential interest for counsellors and psychotherapists.
World Memory is an anthology of 13 essays by 14 writers, seven based in Australia, three in South Africa, three in the USA and one in London, UK. One is an archivist specializing in Aborigines and ‘The Stolen Generation’. One is a poet, writer and former anti-apartheid activist. The other 12 are based in universities. Together they represent the disciplines of art theory, anthropology, education, literature, comparative literature, historiography and psychotherapy. Only three authors are male. Some write as first-hand survivors of trauma and some as second generation. Focusing on memory of trauma is the theme that connects all their essays. Variously they pay their respects and disrespects to Freud and psychoanalysis but this does not figure strongly in the discourse.
World Memory contributes significantly to the topical debate about memory, particularly the contribution of Andreas Huyssen, a scholar of international standing. The approach is mainly philosophical and, because of this, the book contributes to an artificial divide into the science and philosophy of trauma memory. As an antho