Professor Ammary Presents Paper on Modernist American Fiction at International Conference in Warsaw
Professor Silvia Ammary presented the paper “Modernist American fiction: Trauma and healing through memory” at the international conference
The Place of Memory and Memory of Place, held in Warsaw, Poland from October 22-24.
Abstract
Modernist writing in general laments the chances missed, missed opportunities, and exceptional but wasted chances, especially as a result of the shattering values following the experience of World War I, which was the first time the world had ever experienced such a globalized and traumatic conflict. Many American authors narrated those sites of trauma through memory. The memories are characterized by irrational, involuntary moments where the first person narrators try to remember the past and the great sense of loss they had experienced so they can go on living in a present moment which is dramatically different from the past. Thus, Modernist authors such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Faulkner show in their modernist narratives both and simultaneously the limits of memory, but also the therapeutic and cathartic effects it has to narrators, authors and readers. The paper deals with concrete examples from the fiction of Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Faulkner.
Professor Ammary teaches American literature and writing at John Cabot University, where she also acts as Coordinator of ENLUS (English Language for University Studies). In the Fall 2015 semester, Prof. Ammary is teaching EN 200 Introduction to Literature as well as EN 315 Special Topics in American Literature: The Modern American Novel .
Learn more about the Department of English Language and Literature at John Cabot University.
