Trauma, Memory, and Transformation: Southeast Asian Experiences

Different forms of trauma affect many millions of people. Trauma also helps to shape individual and collective memories. This innovative book explores how traumatic occurrences and processes are remembered. Using examples from well-known events like the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia, the Indian Ocean tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia, and civil conflict in southern Thailand, as well as the experiences of ‘comfort women’ in the Philippines, ethnic minority students and inter-religious tensions in Malaysia, the contributors examine how people face, survive and make sense of the frictions and violence in their lives.
Embracing history, ethnography, textual analysis, storytelling and art, the multidisciplinary perspective enables a deeper understanding of both traumatic stress and the structures of memory.
Trauma, Memory and Transformation also moves the discussion of traumatic memory away from paralysis and towards transformative action, in the ways that memories of catastrophe can be re-imagined as forms of resistance or even peace.
This original book will be essential reading for all those interested in the study of memory in the Southeast Asian context. Sharon A. Bong is an associate professor in gender studies, School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University, Malaysia