'In this extraordinary book, Meera Atkinson explores the ways trauma reverberates over a lifetime, unearthing the traumatic roots of our social structures and our collective history.
'Using memoir as a touchstone, Atkinson contemplates the causes of trauma and the scars it leaves on modern society. She vibrantly captures her early life in 1970s and ’80s Sydney and her self-reflection leads the reader on a journey that takes in neuroscience, pop psychology, feminist theory and much more.
'Searing in its truthfulness and beauty, Traumata deals with issues of our time – intergenerational trauma, family violence, alcoholism, child abuse, patriarchy – forging a path of fearless enquiry through the complexity of humanity.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Creative non-fiction.
'Traumata, by Meera Atkinson, is an informed and passionate critique of patriarchy in a braided narrative, where the author’s life story is the weft woven through the warp (the formative structure) of patriarchal society. Atkinson’s weaving of her life story with theory that interprets patriarchy and its forms and deformities is powerful, for every experience and incident she relates is material for illuminating the traumatising influence of patriarchy; hence the plural title. Her self-exposure is searching, nakedly honest and compelling, but it is always in service of her intent, which is to create a three-dimensional picture of the society we are born into, deeply and generationally wounded by the institutionalised, polyphonic, medusa-headed curse of patriarchy. Atkinson has achieved this searching picture of the wounded culture into which we are born with great skill and a remarkable command of the many discourses that inform this deconstruction of ‘traumarchy,’ her word for the traumata caused by patriarchy.' (Introduction)
'In her groundbreaking 1988 study of women’s biography Writing a Woman’s Life, literary scholar Carolyn Heilbrun wrote:
Feminist criticism, scholarship, and theory have gone further in the last two decades than I, even in my most intense time of hope, could have envisioned. Yet I find myself today profoundly worried about the dissemination of these important new ideas to the general body of women.' (Introduction)
'Published less than a year apart, Meera Atkinson’s two new books make a profound and original contribution to the study of trauma in the humanities and creative writing practice, as well as the wider public conversation about its rippling effects upon lives and across generations. Traumata (UQP 2018) and The Poetics of Transgenerational Trauma (Bloomsbury 2017) are very different works, one a creative non-fiction account of growing up and living with trauma and the other an academic inquiry into the literary poetics of trauma transmitted from one generation to another. Yet the two books traverse similar terrain in search of answers to similar questions: how does trauma move from one body to another and across time? How is it shaped and changed by the actions of living, the structures of oppression within which it operates and the slow, arduous efforts of survivors to recover? How might language bring forth that most resistant of experiences, the traumatic?' (Introduction)
'Meera Atkinson writes across genres — creative nonfiction, memoir, fiction, hybrid, poetry, essays, scholarly, songs — and over the last ten years her work has been particularly focussed on the subject of trauma, individual and collective. In 2017, her academic monograph, The Poetics of Transgenerational Trauma, was published by Bloomsbury Academic. In 2007, her essay ‘The Exiled Child’ was shortlisted for The Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate, Victorian Premier’s Awards. Earlier this year, Atkinson’s timely memoir-based book, Traumata, was published by UQP. Melding together personal story and interdisciplinary subjects as broad as neuroscience, pop psychology, feminist theory and philosophy, Traumata illustrates and interrogates the wider context of our society’s structures and wounds.'
Source: Magazine blurb.
'At first glance, Traumata seems to provide an exception to the rule not to judge a book by its cover. Featuring photos of the author’s mother, a woman in her forties, alongside photos of the young Atkinson on the precipice of adolescence, the cover portrays the filial relationship that is central in this memoir. But Atkinson’s exploration is much more kaleidoscopic than the cover suggests. While the familial bonds and betrayal hinted at in these pictures are evident in the book, the author is chiefly concerned with what lies outside the frame: namely, the social forces that shape our selves and our intimate relationships.' (Introduction)
'Published less than a year apart, Meera Atkinson’s two new books make a profound and original contribution to the study of trauma in the humanities and creative writing practice, as well as the wider public conversation about its rippling effects upon lives and across generations. Traumata (UQP 2018) and The Poetics of Transgenerational Trauma (Bloomsbury 2017) are very different works, one a creative non-fiction account of growing up and living with trauma and the other an academic inquiry into the literary poetics of trauma transmitted from one generation to another. Yet the two books traverse similar terrain in search of answers to similar questions: how does trauma move from one body to another and across time? How is it shaped and changed by the actions of living, the structures of oppression within which it operates and the slow, arduous efforts of survivors to recover? How might language bring forth that most resistant of experiences, the traumatic?' (Introduction)
'In her groundbreaking 1988 study of women’s biography Writing a Woman’s Life, literary scholar Carolyn Heilbrun wrote:
Feminist criticism, scholarship, and theory have gone further in the last two decades than I, even in my most intense time of hope, could have envisioned. Yet I find myself today profoundly worried about the dissemination of these important new ideas to the general body of women.' (Introduction)
'Traumata, by Meera Atkinson, is an informed and passionate critique of patriarchy in a braided narrative, where the author’s life story is the weft woven through the warp (the formative structure) of patriarchal society. Atkinson’s weaving of her life story with theory that interprets patriarchy and its forms and deformities is powerful, for every experience and incident she relates is material for illuminating the traumatising influence of patriarchy; hence the plural title. Her self-exposure is searching, nakedly honest and compelling, but it is always in service of her intent, which is to create a three-dimensional picture of the society we are born into, deeply and generationally wounded by the institutionalised, polyphonic, medusa-headed curse of patriarchy. Atkinson has achieved this searching picture of the wounded culture into which we are born with great skill and a remarkable command of the many discourses that inform this deconstruction of ‘traumarchy,’ her word for the traumata caused by patriarchy.' (Introduction)
'Traumata is about many things. It’s about a dimly recalled sexual assault by a paedophile neighbour. It’s about an absent father, an abusive stepfather and a neglectful mother with what sounds like borderline personality disorder. It’s about rape. It’s about being groped by a much-admired uncle. It’s about heroin and speed and paranoia and thoughts of suicide. It’s about broken relationships and a long parade of therapists.' (Introduction)
'In a sea of recovery memoirs, each one more determined than the next to provide a blueprint for how to recover from the unspeakable, Meera Atkinson's recently released Traumata stands out like a welcome sore thumb.' (Introduction)
'At first glance, Traumata seems to provide an exception to the rule not to judge a book by its cover. Featuring photos of the author’s mother, a woman in her forties, alongside photos of the young Atkinson on the precipice of adolescence, the cover portrays the filial relationship that is central in this memoir. But Atkinson’s exploration is much more kaleidoscopic than the cover suggests. While the familial bonds and betrayal hinted at in these pictures are evident in the book, the author is chiefly concerned with what lies outside the frame: namely, the social forces that shape our selves and our intimate relationships.' (Introduction)
'Meera Atkinson writes across genres — creative nonfiction, memoir, fiction, hybrid, poetry, essays, scholarly, songs — and over the last ten years her work has been particularly focussed on the subject of trauma, individual and collective. In 2017, her academic monograph, The Poetics of Transgenerational Trauma, was published by Bloomsbury Academic. In 2007, her essay ‘The Exiled Child’ was shortlisted for The Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate, Victorian Premier’s Awards. Earlier this year, Atkinson’s timely memoir-based book, Traumata, was published by UQP. Melding together personal story and interdisciplinary subjects as broad as neuroscience, pop psychology, feminist theory and philosophy, Traumata illustrates and interrogates the wider context of our society’s structures and wounds.'
Source: Magazine blurb.
