War, Trauma, Memory in Selected Short Stories of Fire and Forget Edited by Roy Scranton and Matt Ghalagher and A Vital Killing by Ahmad Dehghan

Abstract

This article is a comparative study of similar experiences in the American short story collection, Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War edited by Roy Scranton and Matt Ghalagher and the Persian short story collection, A Vital Killing by Ahmad Dehghan as they belong to two different languages, different cultures, and different worldviews. It is an exploration of an overwhelmed psychology in the American short story collection, Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War edited by Roy Scranton and Matt Ghalagher and the Persian short story collection, A Vital Killing by Ahmad Dehghan translated recently into English by Caroline Croskery, and examines the concept of memory within trauma criticism. From amongst the short stores of each collection, three have been selected: “Tips For a Smooth Transition", “The Train", and “Big Two-Hearted Hunting Creek" from the first and “The Passenger", “Stamps", and “A Vital Killing" from the second. The article shows that characters have undergone traumatic losses; therefore, they suffer a painful psychic traumatic wound that keeps haunting them repeatedly.