Traumatic Tales: Creative Representations of Difficult Pasts

Dear Colleagues,

At present, there is a globally narrated concern for our emotional, psychological, and physical wellbeing and welfare. This concern foregrounds not only the current state of the social and cultural psyche but also the difficult pasts that are recalled and re-storied in creative accounts and recollections of both personal and collective trauma. As trauma is an experiential and embodied state of being, the multimodal and sensory nature of contemporary storytelling—its artistic, poetic, and metaphorical facets—provides a critical means of “facing” the traumatic past and, to an extent, processing its re-emergence and reoccurrence. Of particular interest is the way in which fictional stories such as mythologies and folklore can potentially take on fuller potency in our everyday learnings and imaginings, as well as social resonance in readdressing and retelling the wrongs of the past.

This issue reminds us that there is much to be gleaned from contemporary art and storytelling, both of which are not just visual or textual but experiential, sensual, and embodied, much like the nature of trauma itself. Indeed, the practical and ethical tensions of narrating a traumatic past are the same tensions of art and narrative more broadly: the real or perceived dichotomy between fact and fiction, the slippage between linear and non-linear forms of narration, the inevitable collision of social wellbeing and personal care. In this Special Issue, we ask the following questions: What is the role of contemporary art in the re/narrativisation of trauma? When it comes to remediating the past, what can art offer that non-artistic work can not? How do we heal from collective hurt when the past is always present? Is telling the trauma story always necessary?

Manuscripts submitted to this Special Issue can be theorical or applied. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The ethics and aesthetics of trauma, including its representational limits.
• The multimodal nature of visual art storytelling and its potential outcomes and contributions to individuals/societies experiencing trauma.
• The many roles that narrative plays in redressing trauma.
• The potency, currency, and public resonance of mythology and folklore in trauma tales.
• The role of visual storytelling in the critical processing of trauma, beyond art therapy principles.
• The role of trauma-informed practice and trauma-informed care in the writing, editing, and reading of contemporary trauma fictions and non-fictions.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Beata Batorowicz
Dr. Kate Cantrell
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• art
• trauma
• trauma-informed care
• narrative
• storytelling
• self-care