Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick

Goodspeed-Chadwick's first book is a well-balanced scholarly work--appropriately dense yet definitively readable. So much of the criticism we are seeing today is full of jargon and artificial difficulty, but this work makes excellent, critical, and developed points in a way that is comprehensible. This is not to say that the book is under researched or lacks a theoretical background. In fact, the work forges a new theoretical framework by synthesizing previous approaches to trauma studies. It just does so in a way that makes sense, that works, and that enriches the reader's understanding of the writings of Barnes, H.D., and Stein.

While I found the whole book to be fascinating, I was most interested in the author's assessment of Barnes's Nightwood. Anyone who has read Nightwood knows that it's a challenging and, at times, apparently distorted text. Goodspeed-Chadwick channels that distortion--she explains its purpose. That is, the apparently bizarre and deviant acts we see in Nightwood (such as Nora barking on the floor at the end of the novel) are connected to wider issues--in this case, the (embodied) female experience of war and trauma--that are both historically and critically grounded.

For anyone who has spent any time at all studying literature, or for anyone who might want to do so in the future, this is an excellent read. I highly recommend it!
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