Calling trauma, elite capture, and hermeneutical injustice

Abstract Not infrequently, members of privileged groups call trauma: by framing a complex situation around the trauma they claim to have endured. What, if anything, is the problem with this? To address this question, I analyse a case study of this phenomenon: culturally prevalent descriptions of Portuguese decolonization in terms of settler trauma. I provide an account of how this appeal to trauma functions as a frame, guiding interpretation of the broader context in which the traumatic event occurs. I argue that, in the case study and similar situations, appeals to trauma result in epistemic distortion and hermeneutical injustice, even though the trauma frame has many productive applications. In turn, this implies a profound shift in theories of hermeneutical injustice. Against standard accounts, hermeneutical justice is not fundamentally about the stock of hermeneutical resources we have, but about what means of interpretation get put to use and to whose benefit.