Representing Trauma in the Arts: the Curious Case of “Quo Vadis, Aida?”
Representing Trauma in the Arts: the Curious Case of “Quo Vadis, Aida?”

Summary/Abstract: Applying Jurgen Habermas’ distinction between the three knowledge interests guiding scientific research, this article identifies three approaches to ‘trauma’, a clinical approach, rooted in a medical model, a literary approach, rooted in psychoanalysis, and a cultural sociological approach. After elaborating on each of these perspectives, and the various forms through which trauma is represented aesthetically, the three are applied in an analysis of the film “Quo Vadis, Aida?”. It is argued that although they entail different notions of trauma, the three are not mutually exclusive and can be combined in a rich understanding of aesthetic representation. Pletenac

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