Contrary to what we might think in modern times, Medieval and Premodern subjects were not immune to the violence and ravages of war and, despite the latter frequent occurrences, people from earlier historical periods were clearly traumatized by relentless wars and the destruction and violence they wrought. The trauma or psychological wounding brought about by wars was further exacerbated when premodern subjects or communities experienced a reversal or defeat. 

Recent developments in trauma studies and affective theory have brought to the fore issues of emotional responses and embedded resistance to violence and military repression and conquest. The work of Cathy Caruth, Shoshana Felman and Dori Laub helped trauma theory to gain prominence as a cultural and critical theory in the humanities. It is not, however, until the second decade of the 21st century that scholars such as Donna Trembinski, Zackariah C. Long, Wendy J. Turner and Christina Lee have shed light on the possibilities of exploring trauma in the premodern period by effecting nuanced rereadings of medieval and early modern documents (literary panegyrics, songs, pamphlets, broadsheets, lyric poetry, archival documentation, and, particularly, chronicles). Medieval chronicles stand out as pervasive and tangible cultural artifacts that enable us to locate and scrutinize alternative readings of historical narratives which emphasize loss and defeat instead of victory and epic aggrandizement. But other material objects and documentation can also bear signs of trauma. 

At this seminar we aim at interrogating a variety of cultural products (literary texts or genres, the oral and/or archaeological record, visual artifacts or manuscript illuminations, historical documents) from the premodern period within a global geographical sphere. We will engage in a discussion of the trope of defeat along two different axis, personal (or individual) and communal. How does the trauma of defeat impact the self, communities, or the body politic? How can we extricate the severe trauma caused by war, rapine, military annihilation and defeat from the medieval and premodern archive? Does literature help to portray trauma or does it obscure it and erase it? How is trauma articulated or expressed? Can we identify in the documents and artifacts we study examples of communal trauma (understood as that which affects the community collectively) as opposed to melancholic or nostalgic trauma which distresses the individual subject? Is the remembrance of trauma emotionally traumatic in medieval and premodern times or is it ever channeled into forms of resignation, mourning and remembrance? 

All critical methodological approaches are welcome, but we especially encourage contributions that engage in a wide-encompassing and interdisciplinary hermeneutics that takes into account material and emotional responses to traumatic events.