Introduction [Trauma and Public Memory]

Abstract

During the past two decades, there has been a rapid growth in the literature on traumatic memory and a corresponding diversification in focus, but what remains missing from the expanding field of commentary is any sustained consideration of how those who are outsiders to the experience deal with the challenge of its presence in their world. Related to this are some fundamental questions about how traumatic events are acknowledged in the public domain, and come to form part of the fabric of public memory.