TRAUMA AND THE QUESTION OF REPRESENTATION: CONTEMPORARY TRAUMA THEORY, SIGMUND FREUD AND WALTER BENJAMIN

Abstract

The paper deals with the question of whether the works of art, ranging from the written to the
pictorial, can be a refuge from the radical transformation of subjectivity triggered by traumatic
events in the social and historical reality. Th erefore, the fi rst part of the presentation gives an
overview of the problems of contemporary interpretations of trauma.
Freud’s introduction of art as an analogy for the interpretation of trauma is presented in the
important writing called Beyond the Pleasure Principle. The final part of the presentation attempts
to shed light on how the German critic Walter Benjamin builds his concept of lyrical subject (On
Some Motifs in Baudelaire) and the subject of observation (Th e Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical
Reproduction) through the critical exchange with Freud’s concept of shock. Th rough such
presentation of Freud and Benjamin, it is shown that trauma has the role of a breaking event.
Modern researchers argue that trauma has that function only if the social and historical reality is
seen as fi nished and complete.