We are All Haunted: Cultural Understanding and the Paradox of Trauma

Abstract:In this paper, I explore the question: What would it mean for history to be understood as the history of trauma? First implied by Sigmund Freud (2003/1920) in "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," and later taken up the Cathy Caruth (1991, 1993, 1996), the question has broad implications for music education. The nature of trauma as an enigma, as something experienced but not fully grasped in consciousness that returns to "haunt" its survivors through repetitive phenomena such as flashbacks, nightmares, and unexplainable reactions to sights, sounds, smells, and other stimuli, has been documented to affect not only individuals who have experienced violent events but entire cultures that have experienced trauma such as war, natural disaster, genocide, colonialism, racism, and other forms of trauma that are passed down through generations. Trauma as an enigma raises a variety of paradoxes emerging from its relationship to history and to pedagogy, including the relationship of trauma to cultural understanding. My exploration is guided by the question: If history may be understood as the history of trauma, how does the nature of trauma as incomprehensible complicate our concerns for cultural or cross-cultural understanding in music education?