Collective Trauma as a Conceptual Framework in the Interpretation of Tragedy

Abstract

This article looks to argue that the application of a socially informed trauma theory, as elaborated by Jeffrey C. Alexander et al, would yield invaluable insights into the vicissitudes of early modern society, which underwent a profound collective trauma. This collective trauma was performed on the early modern stage, where the especially gory genre of revenge tragedy served as a work-through channel for this fundamental crisis. Replacing the one-sided concept of mourning, the complex framework of collective trauma allows to account for the hegemonic power relations in the process of the creation of different, contesting trauma narratives. Another crucial aspect of the collective trauma-framework which the paper discusses is that while it acknowledges the loss inherent in fundamental social change, it also allows for the merits of Protestantism in the long run. However, it does not necessarily lead to the idea of disenchantment, as the concept of mourning does.