Trauma Memoir as Dystopian Literature

Valentina Romanzi argues that American dystopian fiction is characterized, in part, by “open endings” that invite the reader to imagine a “way out of … dreadful times,” suggesting that the protagonist serves as “someone [who] has found the beginning of the path that will take [the reader] there.” Of the memoirists, Patricia Hampl argues that the writer-self “move[s]” through the story “not so much as a survivor with a harrowing tale to tell as [an] older sort of traveler, the pilgrim, seeking, wondering,” “attempt[ing] to find … a world.” While critical instinct might press one to draw a stark line that divides the memoir, grounded in nonfiction, from the speculative world of dystopian literature, the two are not necessarily exclusive forms. This intersection is especially evident when it comes to what is increasingly referred to as the trauma memoir. This chapter examines a short essay by Sue William Silverman—one that is representative of the trauma that finds itself, to varied degree, on the pages of all of her memoirs—to show how trauma memoirs bear the same primary markers that characterize critical dystopian narratives.