Mapping the Spectral Call of Historical Trauma

The impact of historical traumas such as colonization and war haunt the lives of individuals, families, and communities across the generations. There have been multiple efforts to define such trauma experiences apart from the medical model. However, the particularities of historical trauma sometimes create dissonance in such understandings, calling for further articulation. This article names such dissonance by identifying the tensions in understanding historical trauma, with particular attention to collective trauma and communal experiences in South Korea. Out of this analysis, I identify spectrality as an element that addresses the subjectivities of the complex personhood emerging out of trauma. This spectrality moves subjects toward the future, offering a psychospiritual way of proceeding.