'What's Haunting Dead Europe?' Trauma Fiction as a Reaction to Postmodern Governmentality

Abstract

The ghosts of Christos Tsiolkas’ Dead Europe have been a key focus of its critical reception. This article offers an alternative reading of these ghosts, arguing that Tsiolkas writes trauma fiction to challenge the totalising discourse of postmodern governmentality, to assert the impossibility of an end to history, and to write fiction which haunts its readers to enact an ethical relationship with the traumatic past.