Cultural trauma: A problematic of cultural sociology

Abstract

This article refers to a theoretical concept that is relatively unknown and equally under-appreciated in Greece: the notion of a cultural trauma. Although the term ‘trauma’ is often used in public discourse to designate various individual and collective sufferings, it is rarely clear what is precisely meant by it and what are the dynamics it denotes. The notion of cultural trauma emerged in the context of Jeffrey Alexander’s ‘strong program’ of cultural sociology. Its basic components include the notions of identity, the negative affect and memory. The present article performs a comparison between individual and clinical trauma as well as between collective and cultural trauma. It thus illustrates the convergences among cultural studies, collective memory studies, and the sociology and psychology of emotions.