The Trauma of Loss as a Motif in Realist and Dystopian Literature

• In Event: Yugoslav Responsibility III: Writing against Genocide

Abstract

This paper deals with trauma of loss as a widespread motif in literature from Bosnia and Hercegovina, including in my own work, where the trauma of loss is ever present (although not always completely visible). Representing the trauma of loss requires a new understanding of time in literature, one that departs from the famous “arrow of time,” whose tip moves ever towards the future. Such a reconceptualization of time is what has given rise to texts that treat war and genocide not only in hyper-realistic ways, but also in highly dystopian ones.

Author

• Faruk Šehić