Becoming-Grains-of-Mercury: Documentaries, Posthumanism, and the Entanglements of Traumas

• Published in: Iluminace (Praha) 2023-04, Vol.35 (2), p.51-71
• Main Author: Biolchini, Erica
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anthropocentrism; Catastrophes; Climate change; Culture; Documentary films; Ecosystems; Geology; Postcolonialism; Posthumanism
• ISSN: 0862-397X
• DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1759

In the historical moment of the Anthropocene, a term coined by Paul J. Crutzen which characterizes the contemporary period of the Earth heavily impacted by human activities,1) the human species is not the only terrestrial being who has been and will continue to be traumatized as a result of the human-induced climate change. Entangling Traumas: A Posthuman Perspective Approaching and initiating a discourse on a traumatic syndrome inflicted on human beings and on the Earth, as well as its non-human inhabitants, sheds critical light on the Anthropocene and, specifically, on what human activity does to the environment. [...]those same haunting memories constantly come back within the survivors mind in the form of hallucinations, dreams, or other mental phenomena.9) At the same time, Caruth posits a way of approaching and thinking about trauma which is centered on interconnected groups of people traumatized by collective events.10) By advocating for a notion of a shared post-traumatic syndrome, Caruth moves away from a conceptualization of trauma that focuses solely on the individual human subject, starting to think - we could say - transversally among humans and their mutual traumas.11) She cites examples, among others, such as the (traumatizing) consequences of World War II, the Holocaust, the Bosnia-Herzegovina conflict, or the AIDS epidemic in the 1990s in the US. In accordance with this, Buelens, Durrant, and Eaglestone state that The Future of Trauma Theory "points to areas of change in the field, especially in relation to issues of globalisation and postcolonialism," moving the discipline away from its traditional Eurocentrism into a broader global and postcolonial framework;14) an innovative theory and approach to trauma studies which therefore exceeds national and continental boundaries, as well as religion and ethnic associations.15) Therefore, trauma theory has expanded its focus on traumatic events and post-traumatic memories experienced by humans by continuously questioning itself and increasingly trying to theorize the multiplicities and multidimensionality of human trauma.