Reflecting on the Experience of Injury at Virginia Tech

Abstract

In the aftermath of the killing at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, a vast amount of media coverage has been dedicated to the personal accounts of those affected by the disaster. Guided by the presumption that a subject’s account of what he or she observes and feels faithfully reflects reality, the uncritical elevation of experience naturalizes accounts of injury produced by the event itself. Framed by Joan W. Scott’s examination of the evidence of experience, I consider how foundational treatments of experience are used to narrate the disaster, effectively leading to its dehistoricization. In response, I propose a reading of the event that considers the question, “What does it means to be injured?” as a starting point for historicizing experience.