Trauma, Gender and Ethics in the Works of E.L. Doctorow

This project approaches four of E. L. Doctorows novelsWelcome to Hard Times (1960), The Book of Daniel (1971), Ragtime (1975), and City of God (2000)from the perspectives of feminist criticism and trauma theory. The study springs from the assumption that Doctorows literary project is eminently ethical and has an underlying social and political scope. This crops up through the novels overriding concern with injustice and their engagement with the representation of human suffering in a variety of forms. The book puts forward the claim that E.L. Doctorows literary projectthrough its representation of psychological trauma and its attitude towards gendermay be understood as a call to action against both each individuals indifference and the wider social and political structures and ideologies that justify and/or facilitate the injustices and oppression to which those who are situated at the margins of contemporary US society are subjected.