CULTURAL TRAUMA AS A SUBJECT OF SOCIAL REPRODUCTION

Abstract

The focus of this paper is cultural trauma, in particular the processes of
reproduction of traumatic narratives from the collective memory of the community.
Within sociological theories of cultural trauma, the problem of collective memory is
mainly addressed in two respects: as a problem of representation, related to the structures
of social power; and, as a collective memory that is the subject of commemorative
practices. For both approaches, it is characteristic that the trauma binds itself to a
narrative of a collective memory that disrupts the group's collective identity and as such
forms the basis of a particular type of action. The basic assumption of this paper is that
cultural trauma, represented as a narrative of collective memory, is subject to
internalization on behalf of the agents, which incorporate it in their actions, facilitating
the process of social reproduction. Agents, who adhere to different strategies during the
traumatic sequence to minimize the effects of discomfort caused by the traumatic
narrative, through routinization of actions which incorporate the symptoms of
thetraumatic process, can contribute to the prolongation/maintenance of the trauma.