Books by E. Ann Kaplan

In Trauma Culture, E. Ann Kaplan explores the relationship between the impact of trauma on individuals and on entire cultures and nations. Arguing that humans possess a need to draw meaning from personal experience and to communicate what happens to others, she examines the forms that are used to bridge the experience.

From 19th-century novels to films in the 1990s, American culture abounds with the images of white, middle-class mothers. Kaplan looks at how they appear in the psychoanalytic, historical and cultural spheres.

Analyzes the treatment of women in American movies and examines the themes of a variety of contemporary movies made by women.

An examination of a range of Hollywood films about colonial or exotic travel which shows that the 'male' and the 'imperial' gazes are intertwined in complex ways across cultures.