Epigenetics and Intergenerational Trauma: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Afterlives of Famine in War

Abstract This article discusses an interdisciplinary artist-researcher collaboration exploring biological and socio-cultural afterlives of famine. The project was inspired by research on the Dutch Hunger Winter (1944–45), which indicated transgenerational transmission of biological effects through epigenetics (i.e., that the effects of famine might be “heritable”). These findings are highly relevant in the context of contemporary wars where starvation is being used as a weapon of war. The article discusses how, through research and artistic practice, the authors explored the resonance between biological transmission and “postmemory,” extrapolating from the Dutch case to explore the familial afterlife of traumatic wartime experience. Trauma in the Family TreeCan be transmitted from thee to me.—RACHEL<EPI>If epigenetics is turning on the genes,Trauma is turning on the memes.—ANNA