Effects of Trauma on the Narrative Structures of Across the River and Into the Trees and The Naked and the Dead

Authors

  • Kathleen "Kat" Robinson University of South Florida Author

Keywords:

Ernest Hemingway, The Naked and the Dead, war trauma in literature, World War II fiction, narrative structure, trauma and narrative perspective

Abstract

Ernest Hemingway’s Across the River and Into the Trees and Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead illustrate the narrative engagement of traumas of war into and onto the structures of fiction. The experience of trauma during war operates as a complex play between knowing and not knowing that occurs in reaction to a breach in the mind’s experience of time, self, and the world.

Author Biography

  • Kathleen "Kat" Robinson, University of South Florida

    Kathleen “Kat” Robinson received her PhD in Literature from the University of South Florida. Her research interests include the study of trauma and narrative in modern American and British Literature and the presentation and representation of war in narrative. She has published and presented on Ernest Hemingway, on treasure and treasure-hunting in Florida, and on the effect of war on the narrative structure of Ernest Hemingway.

Published

2026-03-25