1.1.2 Connection between Trauma Literature and Trauma Theory

Trauma is a heated topic. When a society or community suffers from historical traumas, personal testimony and witness will become a connection in the traumatic collective tie. Through oral telling, listening, and the words, traumatic memory participates in a reconstruction of the past and is a particular way of cultural memory. Therefore, traumatic memory breeds trauma literature.

There is no doubt that human beings have experienced many historical traumas. Literature, as one of the most expressive ways to record them, has a deep impact on the traumatic events. In Cathy Caruth’s book Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative and History, she tries hard to make a connection between trauma theory and trauma literature. In 2004, Anne Whitehead published her book Trauma Fiction in which she believes that there is a close relationship between the narrative styles of trauma literature and trauma theory. And the writers are supposed to have used many writing techniques, such as repetition and indirection, to overcome the ineffability of trauma and to come close to the trauma theory.

1.1.3 Characteristics of Trauma Literature in the Post- 9/11 Era

After the 9/11 incident, there was a wave of the post-9/11 novels in America. These novels mainly covered a range of issues inspired by the incident, including the 9/11 incident and the reflection upon the meaning of life. The depth contemplation of history and ideas blended the history and the reality.

Many pieces of works showed the persification of the post-9/11 novels’ subjects, which was driven by traumatic writing. Regarding “traumatic literature”, descriptions from direct and indirect victims caught up in the huge disasters were the start point of the post-9/11 novels, which helped following scholars discover how significantly historical events impact inpiduals.

The writers not only related their novels to the reflection of life’s meaning but also paid much attention to the connection between reality and history. On the one hand, the writers in the post-9/11 era stuck to the objective view. On the other hand, they have slowly gained insight into the heart of witness of the 9/11 incident. They not only complained and criticized the disaster but also tried hard to find the causes of the incident, wishing to find a new way for the American society and build a new social order.

1.2 Literature Review

1.2.1 A Brief Introduction to the Author and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Born in 1977 in Washington, D.C, Jonathan Safran Foer is the middle son in a Jewish family; his elder brother, Franklin, is a former editor of The New Republic and his younger brother, Joshua, is the founder of Altas Obscura.

Foer graduated from Princeton in 1999 with a degree in philosophy and traveled to Ukraine to expand his thesis. In 2002, he published his first book Everything is Illuminated. This book earned him National Jewish Book Award and Guardian First Book Award. After its initial release, many critics showed great appreciation for this novel. In 2010, Foer was included in the New Yorker Magazine’s once-a-decade “20 under 40” list with writers like Karen Russell, Gary Shteyngart and so on. Foer’s second novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, was published in 2005. In 2009, Foer published his third book, Eating Animals. The book attempts to explain why and how humans can be so loving to our companion animals while simultaneously being indifferent to others and explores what this inconsistency tells us about ourselves.

In the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Foer uses the 9/11 incident as a backdrop for the story of the 9-year-old boy Oskar Schell. Oskar’s father, Thomas Shell, dies in the 9/11 incident. When the incident happens, his father calls back home from the World Trade Center. Through the telephone recording, he hears his father’s last voice and the crack of the building’s falling. It becomes a nightmare in Oskar’s heart, and he chooses to keep it to himself instead of telling his family members. One day, in his father’s closet, Oskar finds a key in a small envelope inside a vase that he accidentally breaks. He sees the name Black on the envelope, and he believes that he can keep closer to his father if he could find the key’s owner. Driven by a relentlessly active mind, Oskar sets out on a mission to contact every person in New York City whose last name is Black in the hope of finding the lock that belongs to the key. During his journey, Oskar begins to open his heart to these strangers he meets, and he slowly realizes he is not the only one who is experiencing trauma. Finally, he finds the owner of the key and tries starting a new life.