10.17192/meta.2018.11.7792 Parr, Nora Nora Parr No More “Eloquent Silence”: Narratives of Occupation, Civil War, and Intifada Write Everyday Violence and Challenge Trauma Theory Middle East - Topics + Arguments : Vol 11 (2018) Philipps-Universität Marburg 2018 literary form Palestinian Intifadah Lebanese Civil War Eloquent Silence Arabic Literature trauma Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS) 2018-11-26 2018-11-13 en JournalArticle https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0003/2018/229/7792 urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-0003-2018-229-77924 https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0003/2018/229/7792/7792.png 2196-629X application/pdf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Discourse on trauma has re-emerged in an era where media and mobility bring it to global doorsteps. Frameworks for understanding trauma remain dictated by thinking that emerged from Europe’s “great wars” and American deployment to Vietnam. This framework—which sees trauma and the terrible as “out of time” or “other” to a perceived normal daily experience—has formed what critics call the “empire of trauma.” This empire limits how war, violence, and the terrible can be talked about and understood as part of (or not part of) contemporary life. Looking at two trauma narratives, Taḥta shams al-ḍuḥā (2004) by Ibrahim Nasrallah and Bāʾ mithl Baīt... mthl Baīrūt (1997; Trans B as in Beirut, 2008) by Iman Humaydan, the paper gives short readings that disrupt what has emerged as a binary of trauma theory. It shows how repetition and open endings turn everyday/trauma into everyday trauma, then goes on to explore how the novels develop language and generic structures so that they hold—rather than silence—tellings of the terrible. 2196-629X Middle East - Topics + Arguments Vol 11 (2018)