The Invisibility of War Trauma | Dr Stefano Serafini

A free hybrid seminar in which Dr Stefano Serafini examines the invisibly damaged First World War veteran in interwar British and Italian literature.

Dr Stefano Serafini, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Padua, gives a hybrid seminar on the figure of the veteran who returns from the First World War seemingly unscathed, yet whose war damage resurfaces in acts of violence never recognised as consequences of the conflict. Drawing on interwar literary texts from Britain and Italy, he combines close reading with comparative analysis of scientific and socio-political discourses to argue that these works negotiate war trauma through the invisibly damaged veteran. The event runs from 4pm to 5.45pm: the talk itself takes place 4–4.45pm, followed by a discussion and questions 4.45–5.15pm chaired by Katrin Wehling-Giorgio and Brian Powers, and drinks and networking 5.15–5.45pm. It is co-badged by the Institute for Medical Humanities' Violence, Trauma and Memory Research Strand and the International Centre for Moral Injury.