Beyond the Luxury of Denial: Historical Trauma and Narrative Ethics in Teju Cole and Julie Otsuka

This paper examines how Teju Cole’s Open City and Julie Otsuka’s internment narratives engage with historical trauma through distinct narrative strategies. Cole constructs New York City as a palimpsest, layering past and present traumas within the urban landscape, while Otsuka employs a collective voice to underscore the erasure of individual identity during Japanese American internment. Drawing on theories of trauma, memory, and witnessing, the study demonstrates how both authors challenge conventional historical testimony and create narrative spaces that facilitate ethical engagement with traumatic histories. Their works serve as both repositories of historical trauma and sites for active moral reckoning, transforming how literature can preserve and interrogate painful pasts while resisting historical amnesia.