This book analyzes six key narratives of Hurricane Katrina across literature film and
television from the literary fiction of Jesmyn Ward to the cinema of Spike Lee. It argues that
these texts engage with the human tragedy and political fallout of the Katrina crisis while
simultaneously responding to issues that have characterized the wider George W. Bush era of
American history notably the aftermath of 9 11 and ensuing War on Terror. In doing so it
recognizes important challenges to trauma studies as an interpretive framework opening up a
discussion of the overlaps between traumatic rupture and systemic or ¿slow violence.¿
