A “pre-traumatic stress syndrome”: trauma and war in Elizabeth Bowen’s The Last September and The Heat of the Day

As a modernist writer writing through the two World Wars and witnessing the decline of British imperial power through the decay of her own class, the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, most of Elizabeth Bowen’s (1899–1973) writing is that of trauma. Many critics have suggested that modernist writing provides a response to the traumas of the era and resonates with the Freudian model of trauma, which regards the syndrome of traumatic events as post-traumatic. This essay challenges the previous studies regarding modernist writing of trauma as post-traumatic, by introducing Saint-Amour’s concept of a “pre-traumatic stress syndrome” to study Bowen’s two novels about wars, The Last September and The Heat of the Day. The essay holds that in Bowen’s writing, anticipation and anxiety arising before the war can also inflict psychic damage, just like the actual war. The essay demonstrates how Bowen’s writing about wars adds a new approach to literary trauma studies, which have concentrated almost solely on the aftermath of catastrophes or violence. Interpreting Bowen’s writing as pre-trauma not only provides a better understanding of the psychological condition of people during the wars but brings a new perspective to trauma studies as well.