Narrating our Healing: Perspectives on Working through Trauma - Hardcover

Chris van der Merwe is Associate Professor of Afrikaans and Dutch Literature at the University of Cape Town. He has written varioius books and articles in English, Afrikaans and Dutch on South African and Dutch Literature and on Theory of Literature. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Cape Town and a former member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book, 'A Human Being Diet that Night: A Story of Forgiveness'.

"Books like this one provide an opportunity for narrative researchers to address the often rather uneasy relation between their work, and work which takes narrative as a medium of personal and social change from individual narrative therapy, through narrative community theatre projects, to large-scale social interventions through popular media narratives. Much more than this, though, this particular book offers a highly sophisticated, though controversial, take on relations between narrative and social change, which many narrative researchers can usefully consider in relation to their own work. Most obviously, Narrating Our Healing gives an insightful account of how people deal, individually and collectively, with the aftermath of genocides and violent political oppression, particularly that lived through by the authors." - Professor Corinne Squire in Narrative Inquiry 18:1 (2008) 181-185 "The book is remarkably overarching, tailored to the needs of scientists and practitioners in the fields of psychology, social work, education and literature. It offers a strong message to all individuals and nations who live in an atmosphere of blame, shame and hopelessness." - Yuval Wolf, Professor of Psychology and Dean of Social Sciences, Bar-Ilan University "Narrating Our Healing is a good book in the widest sense of that adjective: it is well constructed, meticulously researched, and likely to deepen understanding of the difficult but profoundly important subject of trauma and how to address it. It is something like a handbook for living with suffering - both one's own and that of others. To have constructed a text that can serve such a purpose is a profoundly admirable achievement." - Annie Gagiano, LitNet "It is a timeous and exciting study that should be essential reading for anyone grappling with our present, our past and our future." - Andre P Brink, South African and international author "This is one of the best books I have ever read on healing deep wounds." - Vamyk D. Volkan, M. D. Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia. "We need to know the truth about what happened in South Africa during the Apartheid years. Van der Merwe and Gobodo-Madikizela have given us the tools to face that challenge." - Rolf Wolfswinkel, Professor of Modern History, New York University "Narrating our Healing offers us useful theoretical entry points for the study of trauma and its potential to bring about healing of the personal and private sort." - Cornelius Thomas, Director, National Heritage and Cultural Studies Centre, University of Fort Hare; New Contree 54 (2007)