Cotsell (Victorian studies, Shakespeare Institute, U. of Birmingham) argues that the representation of trauma and resulting dissociation is the primary characteristic of American modernist drama in the early 20th century. He traces the roots of the American modernist Theater of Trauma to the psychological investigation of trauma and its consequences, the resulting dissociationist culture, and the trauma of World War I. He contends that American dramatists' resistance to Freud's suppression of trauma challenges the equation of Freud and modernism that is a commonplace of modernist criticism. Annotation 2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
