TRAUMA, MEMORY, AND IDENTITY IN POST-WAR ENGLISH FICTION

Abstract

This article explores the interrelationship between trauma, memory, and identity in post-war English fiction. Focusing on novels written in the aftermath of the Second World War, the study examines how literary narratives represent psychological trauma, fragmented memory, and the reconstruction of subjectivity. Through close readings of works by Graham Greene, Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing, William Golding, and Ian McEwan, the article demonstrates how post-war fiction employs innovative narrative strategies to articulate the lingering effects of war on individual and collective identity. The study argues that memory functions as both a site of trauma and a means of reconstituting the self in post-war English literature.