Trauma Theory and Hemingway's Lost Paris Manuscripts

Abstract

Ernest Hemingway wrote about the 1922 loss of his early Paris manuscripts in four major published works—A Moveable Feast, Islands in the Stream, The Garden of Eden, and True at First Light—although Hemingway's editors have not always included the episode in the published versions. His repeated writing about this loss might have served as a sort of creative flashback, allowing him to face and deal with the trauma. When these works are read in order of composition and in light of modern trauma theory, a pattern of forgiveness and psychological healing emerges.