What happens when trauma and nostalgia meet? Associate Professor Trent Hickman believes they shape our memories, and in turn, our identity.
From 1930 until his assassination in 1961, Rafael Trujillo ruled the Dominican Republic as dictator. His reign was characterized by unethical leadership so oppressive and traumatic that many Dominicans fled to the United States in search of peace. This diaspora—the act of being displaced from one’s home country—has become the research focus of Associate Professor Trent Hickman (Memory, Nostalgia, and Trauma in Literature). While Hickman studied specifically Dominican American literature, he noticed the tendency of authors to portray their diaspora through lenses of trauma and nostalgia—elements that transform memories both real and imagined.
Trauma Studies
When Hickman began studying diaspora and trauma, he researched the work of scholars examining personal stories of trauma, like memoirs from the Holocaust. Their work explored how individuals process trauma and how trauma impacts their world view. Hickman says that these scholars were “trying to figure out how trauma changes perception, memory, narrative, and even what’s at stake with narrative when it comes to empathy.” Although the research focused on nonfiction accounts, which often serve the purpose of educating others, Hickman began to question how trauma could impact fictional portrayals of traumatic experiences.
Memory: Where Trauma and Nostalgia Collide
Hickman’s curiosity led him to study the effects of diaspora on Dominican American literature, including works by famous Dominican American authors like Julia Alvarez and Junot Díaz. It seemed that, sooner or later, every one of these writers felt compelled to write about Trujillo and his repressive dictatorship. Often, these writers depict fictional characters who feel the need to flee their Dominican homeland, but, as Hickman explains, their departure “almost immediately creates longing for their home.”
According to Hickman’s research, the characters’ experiences and perspectives mirrored the authors’ and others’ real experiences. Dominican Americans initially didn’t find peace in the United States due to overwhelming changes in culture, language, and societal systems. Eventually, however, they began to find stability by forming small communities with people who shared their cultural heritage and the experience of being displaced from their home country. Hickman says these communities “create opportunities for people to shape each other’s memories about the past.”
While trauma tends to block out good memories, nostalgia, Hickman says, “causes your memory to become more selective. Often, trauma and nostalgia coexist.” In these newfound communities within the States, it seems, Dominican Americans and their posterity often find themselves longing in the midst of their trauma. This longing isn’t just a result of reminiscing for their home country; it’s also impacted by the challenges of living in a new country. As they rally together as a community, a sense of identity is developed, causing memories of the past to shift to a more positive view as new memories are formed amid real present-day challenges.
Hickman asserts that Dominican American authors’ portrayals of diaspora are deeply affected by both trauma and nostalgia. He says, “The attitudes these characters have toward historical events are so colored by all of the things that they either long for or are afraid of.” As characters come together, much like Dominican Americans in real-life, they find the culture and community of the home that they long for. Hickman’s research shows that when trauma and nostalgia coexist in memory, identity takes shape at the intersection of the past and the present—both for the authors and their characters.
Learn more about Hickman here.