Childhood Traumas

This volume contributes to understanding childhoods in the twentieth and twenty-firstcentury by offering an in-depth overview of children and their engagement with the violent world around them. The chapters deal with different historical, spatial, and cultural contexts, yet converge on the question of how children relate to physiological and psychological violence.

The twentieth century has been hailed as the "century of the child" but it has also witnessed an unprecedented escalation of cultural trauma experienced by children during the two World Wars, Holocaust, Partition of the Indian subcontinent, and Vietnam War. The essays in this volume focus on victimized childhood during instances of war, ethnic violence, migration under compulsion, rape, and provide insights into how a child negotiates with abstract notions of nation, ethnicity, belonging, identity, and religion. They use an array of literary and cinematic representations―fiction, paintings, films, and popular culture―to explore the long-term effect of violence and neglect on children. As such, they lend voice to children whose experiences of abuse have been multifaceted, ranging from genocide, conflict and xenophobia to sexual abuse, and also consider ways of healing.

With contributions from across the world, this comprehensive book will be useful to scholars and researchers of cultural studies, literature, education, education policy, gender studies, child psychology, sociology, political studies, childhood studies, and those studying trauma, conflict, and resilience.

Kamayani Kumar is Assistant Professor, Department of English, Aryabhatta College, University of Delhi, India. Her PhD was on Representation of Child, Body, and Nation in Partition Literature from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. She has published several research papers Partition studies, and childhood trauma. She is currently working on a book on Partition and visual culture.

Angelie Multani is Professor Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. Her PhD was on the politics of performance and production of English Language Theatre in India, from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She has published extensively on theatre, Mahesh Dattani, Indian English fiction, and contemporary fiction. Her teaching interests include European drama and fantasy literature.