The invisibility of war trauma: Mental health, violence and literature in interwar Britain and Italy

In this hybrid session, Stefano Serafini will explore a largely overlooked literary figure of the First World War: the veteran who appears to have “come through” unscathed, returns to civilian life, and functions outwardly well, yet whose war damage re-emerges belatedly in acts of violence that are never recognised as consequences of the conflict. Rather than concentrating on visibly broken soldiers, he will turn to apparently untroubled ex-servicemen whose destructiveness is systematically misread. Drawing on interwar literary texts from Britain and Italy, and combining historically informed close reading with a comparative analysis of scientific and socio-political discourses in both countries, Stefano will explore these works as key sites for negotiating war trauma and violence. Through the figure of the invisibly damaged veteran, they test the limits of contemporary efforts to grasp the psychic afterlife of the war.

Stefano is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgetown University and the University of Padua (2024–27). The session will be co-chaired by Katrin Wehling-Giorgio (Co-Director of the Institute for Medical Humanities and Affiliate Member of the International Centre for Moral Injury) and Brian Powers (Executive Director of the International Centre for Moral Injury and Fellow of the Institute for Medical Humanities).

In-person attendees are invited to stay for drinks and informal conversation at 5.15pm local time.

This event is co-organised with the Institute of Medical Humanities' Trauma, Violence and Memory research strand.

Register for online or in-person attendance