Abstract

For over 30 years, an interdisciplinary discourse has existed under the umbrella term ›trauma studies‹, in which traces of psychological trauma in literature and the arts are uncovered and analysed. In the Anglo-American research area, trauma studies have also long been practised in musicology—but it has not yet gained comparable attention in the German-speaking academic context. This article provides an overview of the development of medical-psychological psychotraumatology and the closely related field of trauma studies in subjects with a cultural studies orientation, before exploring the potential and limitations of trauma studies as a new research paradigm and finally outlining possible areas of application in musicology.