Urban landscapes and the layers of trauma in Spike Lee and David Simon post-Katrina narratives.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6093/sigma.v0i5.8760
Keywords: David Simon, Spike Lee, seriality, trauma, urban space

Abstract

The paper will propose some reflections on the representations of the post-Katrina in When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, a documentary directed by Spike Lee in 2006, and the TV series Treme, written and produced by David Simon and Eric Overmyer (2010-2013); both texts were aired by HBO. The peculiar aspects of the complex and layered trauma experienced by those affected by Katrina emerge in the specificities of the narrativization of the relationship between trauma, the city, and the residents and of the spatialization of trauma that the two texts elaborate. As a collective traumatic experience, Katrina brought together not only psychological and cultural aspects of trauma, but also political, urban, and environmental ones. Both When the Levees Broke and Treme acted not only as mediators of the event and its meanings, but also as political actors in the rebuilding processes. The two texts pointed out how it’s possible to read in the landscape and texture of the urban space and intimate places causes and effects of Katrina trauma and from there beginning a journey of healing and shared memories.

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Author Biography

Ilaria Biano, Independent researcher

Ilaria Biano is a post-doc researcher in the fields of intellectual history and religious studies, with a focus on the relationships between history, narratives, and political and religious experiences. She holds a PhD in Political Studies. History and Theory from University of Turin and she was research fellow at Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici, Napoli, and at Fondazione Einaudi, Torino. Some of her most recent contributions in Italian and international journals and edited books focus on the representations of trauma, memory, and nostalgia, but also on religious and spiritual aspects in contemporary audio-visual seriality; the political and religious thought of contemporary authors such as Habermas, Eisenstadt, Beck; a monograph on Max Weber Sociology of religions is forthcoming.

Published
2021-12-20
How to Cite
BianoI. (2021). Urban landscapes and the layers of trauma in Spike Lee and David Simon post-Katrina narratives. SigMa - Rivista Di Letterature Comparate, Teatro E Arti Dello Spettacolo, (5), 191-214. https://doi.org/10.6093/sigma.v0i5.8760
Issue
No 5 (2021): Historical event, collective trauma and spatiality in contemporary literature and arts
Section
Sezione monografica

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