The Violence of Hiroshima: Hersey, Bataille and Caruth

This article deals first with John Hersey’s 1946 Hiroshima, one of the earliest literary responses in English to the nuclear bombing of the city of Hiroshima in August 1945 and one of the most destructive acts of military violence in the 20th century. It then focuses on French philosopher’s Georges...

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Main Author: Jocelyn Dupont
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" 2017-03-01
Series:Sillages Critiques
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4906
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author Jocelyn Dupont
author_facet Jocelyn Dupont
author_sort Jocelyn Dupont
collection DOAJ
description This article deals first with John Hersey’s 1946 Hiroshima, one of the earliest literary responses in English to the nuclear bombing of the city of Hiroshima in August 1945 and one of the most destructive acts of military violence in the 20th century. It then focuses on French philosopher’s Georges Bataille’s singular and disquieting review of Hersey’s short book, published the following year in Critique. Finally, it discusses the somewhat unexpected return of Bataille’s text in Cathy Caruth’s 1995 seminal collection Trauma: Explorations in Memory, and endeavors to assess Bataille’s contemporary relevance to trauma studies. It appears that these three texts operate a process of traumatic transmission and literary actualization of the catastrophe.
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language English
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publisher Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
record_format Article
series Sillages Critiques
spelling doaj-art-6b152c8c804540ec9c9b8e3900ffadb52025-01-30T13:46:54ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022017-03-012210.4000/sillagescritiques.4906The Violence of Hiroshima: Hersey, Bataille and CaruthJocelyn DupontThis article deals first with John Hersey’s 1946 Hiroshima, one of the earliest literary responses in English to the nuclear bombing of the city of Hiroshima in August 1945 and one of the most destructive acts of military violence in the 20th century. It then focuses on French philosopher’s Georges Bataille’s singular and disquieting review of Hersey’s short book, published the following year in Critique. Finally, it discusses the somewhat unexpected return of Bataille’s text in Cathy Caruth’s 1995 seminal collection Trauma: Explorations in Memory, and endeavors to assess Bataille’s contemporary relevance to trauma studies. It appears that these three texts operate a process of traumatic transmission and literary actualization of the catastrophe.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4906HiroshimaJohn HerseyGeorges BatailleCathy CaruthTrauma in literature
spellingShingle Jocelyn Dupont
The Violence of Hiroshima: Hersey, Bataille and Caruth
Sillages Critiques
Hiroshima
John Hersey
Georges Bataille
Cathy Caruth
Trauma in literature
title The Violence of Hiroshima: Hersey, Bataille and Caruth
title_full The Violence of Hiroshima: Hersey, Bataille and Caruth
title_fullStr The Violence of Hiroshima: Hersey, Bataille and Caruth
title_full_unstemmed The Violence of Hiroshima: Hersey, Bataille and Caruth
title_short The Violence of Hiroshima: Hersey, Bataille and Caruth
title_sort violence of hiroshima hersey bataille and caruth
topic Hiroshima
John Hersey
Georges Bataille
Cathy Caruth
Trauma in literature
url https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4906
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