Narrating the Unseen Trauma

The book Narrating the Unseen Trauma offers an in-depth exploration of silenced trauma in fiction through Gerald Prince's innovative concept of disnarration, which examines what is omitted, unsaid, or repressed in storytelling. Centring on the novels of Kazuo Ishiguro and Aminatta Forna, writers shaped by the nuclear aftermath of Japan and the civil wars of Sierra Leone, the book investigates how trauma manifests across distinct cultural and historical landscapes while revealing its universal psychological scars. The book reveals how narratives serve as testimonies of suffering, instruments of healing, and modes of resistance, while also uncovering the strategies of silence, denial, nostalgia, and fractured memory that shape the depiction of trauma. It highlights both the convergences and divergences in the works of Ishiguro and Forna, emphasising the need for a decolonised and interdisciplinary framework that acknowledges and values diverse cultural articulations of trauma. Ultimately, the book positions literature as a vital space where silenced histories can find voice, resilience can emerge, and reconciliation can be imagined, paving the way for future scholarship on trauma across global contexts.