-----

This dissertation seeks to accomplish two broad goals. First, to develop a theory of trauma as a politically mobilizable rhetorical device. It argues that trauma is best defined as an affective reservoir of grief, powerlessness and stagnancy stemming from an unresolved pain point which can be deployed politically through narrative tactics that claim to provide meaning, resolution and agency to undo its damages. Second, this project utilizes this theory to map the rise of ethno-nationalism in two states, Croatia and India. These states share a similar founding traumatic wound, a state breakup and associated violent conflicts, but had seemingly moved on from the path of ethno-nationalism in favor of pluralistic democracy. This work argues that the contemporary backslide in both states reveals an eerily similar playbook of activating unresolved traumas with its greatest appeal and reason for success being the claim to provision of a future amid stagnancy. 

Light lunch will be provided. 

-----