Christopher Nolan occupies a rare realm within the Hollywood mainstream, creating complex, original films that achieve both critical acclaim and commercial success. In The Traumatic Screen, Stuart Joy builds on contemporary applications of psychoanalytic film theory to consider the function and presentation of trauma across Nolans work, arguing that the complexity, thematic consistency and fragmentary nature of his films mimic the structural operation of trauma.

From 1997s Doodlebug to 2017s Dunkirk, Nolans films highlight cinemas ability to probe the nature of human consciousness while commenting on the relationship between spectator and screen. Joy examines Nolans treatment of trauma both individual and collective through the formal construction, mise en scene and repeated themes of his films. The argument presented is based on close textual analysis and a methodological framework that incorporates the works of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. The first in-depth, overtly psychoanalytic understanding of trauma in the context of the directors filmography, this book builds on and challenges existing scholarship in a bold new interpretation of the Nolan canon.