Quinn, Tom

Dr. Tom Quinn completed his Ph.D. at Dublin City University (DCU) in 2002 and since then has lectured on war and literature at DCU, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, and in French Studies at Queen's University Belfast. He has given papers at a large number of conferences in Ireland, the UK and continental Europe.

Traumatic Memory of the Great War 1914-1918 in Louis-Ferdinand CÉline’s voyage Au Bout De La Nuit

2005 0-7734-5938-3
This is the first full-length study to place Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Voyage au bout de la nuit (Journey to the End of the Night) within the context of the experience and memory of the Great War 1914-1918. In doing so, this study examines the totality of the relationship between the literary artifact and the experience and memory, both personal and collective, of the war from which it emerged. This study is multi-dimensional, drawing on a wide range of sources, including the regimental diaries of Céline’s cavalry regiment in the Great War, biographical and literary studies of Céline, general and cultural histories of the Great War, while reaching out to embrace the literature of memory and trauma. By drawing on the literature of trauma, this study offers a portrait of a Céline traumatized by his war experience, while illustrating the ways in which his trauma shapes Voyage. In doing so, it reveals the mechanisms which govern this work of art and determines its place at the intersection of war, memory and literature. As such, it makes an important contribution to Céline studies, to studies of the memory and literature of the Great War, as well as to broader studies of war disrupted twentieth-century trauma, memory and identity.