Trauma theory emerged in the US in the early 1990s, a decade after Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was first included in the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Geoffrey Hartman emphasises that the spectrum of trauma theory ranges from the personal to the collective due to its inclusion of ‘war and genocide’, ‘rape, and the abuse of women and children’ as well as ‘daily hurt’ (1995: 546).

Traumatic stress is ‘caused by life-threatening or self-threatening events that are accompanied by fear, helplessness, or horror’ (Resick 2001: 28), and may result in a range of problems, such as PTSD, acute stress disorder, adjustment disorder, depression, anxiety and substance abuse. PTSD, in particular, has been seen as ‘fundamentally a disorder of memory’ (Leys 2000: 2). Trauma theorists argue that the impact of catastrophic incidents impedes free association, the ‘creative process through which experience, memory, and fantasy are woven into the texture of a life – or a culture’ (Radstone 2002: 457). Trauma breaks the continuity of daily life, and these disruptions are expressed in the stories trauma survivors tell or write about themselves and their lives (Tuval-Mashiach et al. 2004: 281).

Interdisciplinary interest in trauma literature derives from the discourse of memory ‘as trauma theory becomes part of the ideology of history’ (Whitehead 2004: 81) and is situated within the contexts of post-modernism, post-colonialism and a post-war consciousness. Post-modern art thrives on trauma, often blurring the demarcation line between art and trauma theory.