The Wound: Violence, Trauma, Cure
\nGerman 580, English 552<\/p>\n
Since antiquity, epic and tragic performance has been a therapeutic space. Poems and dramas represent violence and woundedness and they purportedly aim to help people cope with the inevitable afflictions of the human condition. How does the re-staging of brutal suffering figure as a hope for its cure? In this seminar, we will explore all three aspects of the wound: the violence that causes it; the trauma of its pain; and the possibility of treatment. To do so, we will read epic poems, tragedies, and an opera that rework myths from the Trojan War to represent wounds of battle, gender, slavery, displacement, and colonialism. We will investigate epic poetry and tragedy both as performative art and as texts. Authors include: Sophocles, Kleist, Derek Walcott, Anne Carson, and Ursula Krechel. We will also study theoretical interventions on violence and trauma by Walter Benjamin, Ruth Leys, Cathy Caruth, and others. Additionally, we\u2019ll observe the recent use of Greek tragedy for PTSD therapy by the \u201cTheater of War\u201d project.
\nDiscussions in English. Reading in original languages encouraged but not required: all texts are available in translation.<\/p>\n
Images (clockwise from upper left):\u00a0
\n“The suicide of Ajax,” Etrurian red-figured calyx-krater (ca. 400\u2013350 BCE)
\n“Penthesilea and Achilles,” Maurice Sendak (1998), illustration\u00a0 for Kliest’s Penthesilea\u00a0(1808)
\n“After Omeros 5,” Francesco Clamente (2016)
\nPhoto from\u00a0Norma Jean Baker of Troy, by Anne Carson, performed by Renee Fleming and Ben Wishow, The Shed, Los Angeles (2019)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[47],"class_list":["post-1286","course","type-course","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive-courses"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-23 09:01:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/uwcps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/course\/1286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/uwcps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/course"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/uwcps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/course"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/uwcps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/uwcps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}