The Notebook, the Closet, and the Film: Iranians Processing Trauma Through Public History, Case Study: The 1988 Executions

Abstract

Iranians who lost loved ones during the revolutionary period (1979–89) have struggled with trauma for more than 40 years. The pain of loss and the knowledge of the torture that happened in the prisons have haunted Iranians who have unintentionally tried to process their trauma through public history. In this article I explore some of these cases by drawing upon interviews I conducted with family members, using them to provide a theoretical framework that demonstrates how generational experience contributed to the ways families, largely unaware of this historical field, utilize public history for healing purposes. Oppression has forced Iranians to engage with audiences as limited as one’s family or as broad as on a global scale. As some Iranians have moved into diaspora, and with the transition of developed trauma into an inherited form, the fear of oppression has decreased generationally, increasing the levels of engagement with the public. This has encouraged Iranians living inside the country to join in such efforts on a larger scale. Whether public, semi-public, or less-than-public, all cases demonstrate how the process of healing has evolved into a form of resistance that strives for engagement while defying the forces that seek to silence them.