The Palgrave Handbook of Holocaust Literature and Culture reflects current approaches to Holocaust literature that open up future thinking on Holocaust representation. The chapters consider diverse generational perspectives—survivor writing, second and third generation—and genres—memoirs, poetry, novels, graphic narratives, films, video-testimonies, and other forms of literary and cultural expression. In turn, these perspectives create interactions among generations, genres, temporalities, and cultural contexts. The volume also participates in the ongoing project of responding to and talking through moments of rupture and incompletion that represent an opportunity to contribute to the making of meaning through the continuation of narratives of the past. As such, the chapters in this volume pose options for reading Holocaust texts, offering openings for further discussion and exploration. The inquiring body of interpretive scholarship responding to the Shoah becomes itself a story, a narrative that materially extends our inquiry into that history.
Author(s): Victoria Aarons, Phyllis Lassner
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 827
Tags: Contemporary Literature
Acknowledgements......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
List of Figures......Page 11
Chapter 1 Introduction: Approaching the Holocaust in the Twenty-First Century......Page 13
Part I Memoir......Page 24
Chapter 2 Elie Wiesel’s Quarrel with God......Page 25
Wiesel as Protest Theologian......Page 26
A Suffering God......Page 29
The Gates of the Forest, Twilight, the Forgotten......Page 30
The Forgotten......Page 31
Conclusion—Significance of Wiesel’s Position......Page 32
Bibliography......Page 34
Chapter 3 Primo Levi’s Last Lesson: A Reading of The Drowned and the Saved......Page 36
II......Page 40
III......Page 45
Bibliography......Page 51
Chapter 4 What We Learn, at Last: Recounting Sexuality in Women’s Deferred Autobiographies and Testimonies......Page 53
Bibliography......Page 70
Part II Fiction......Page 72
Chapter 5 Ghetto in Flames: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Early Postwar Jewish Literature......Page 73
Reporting the Revolt......Page 74
“The Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto”......Page 76
The Miracle of the Warsaw Ghetto......Page 79
“Yosl Rakover Talks to God”......Page 81
Never to Forget: The Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto......Page 83
A Flag Is Born and A Survivor from Warsaw......Page 85
The Wall......Page 87
Bibliography......Page 94
Chapter 6 The Nazi Beast at the Warsaw Zoo: Animal Studies, the Holocaust, The Zookeeper’s Wife, and See Under: Love......Page 96
Animal Studies and the Holocaust......Page 97
Diane Ackerman’s The Zookeeper’s Wife......Page 99
The Zookeeper’s Wife at the Movies......Page 102
See Under: Love......Page 104
Conclusion......Page 109
Bibliography......Page 113
Introduction: The Dynamics of the Figurative......Page 115
Anne Frank and Wartime Experimentation......Page 118
The Definition of a Genre: Postwar Memoirs......Page 120
Maus as a Fulcrum: The Literalization of Metaphor......Page 122
Fairy Tales and Figurative Dynamics......Page 124
The Holocaust as a Metaphor......Page 126
Conclusion......Page 129
Bibliography......Page 131
Chapter 8 Jewish Boys on the Run: The Revision of Boyhood in Holocaust Fiction and Film......Page 133
The Perils of Jewish Boyhood Masculinity......Page 138
“We Have to Find Somewhere. We Have to.”......Page 139
Women to the Rescue......Page 142
Bibliography......Page 149
Chapter 9 “I Sometimes Thought I Was Listening to Myself”: Identity-Deliberation After the Holocaust in Chaim Grade’s “My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner”......Page 151
“Societies of the Mind”: Self-Deliberation......Page 153
Ethical Engagement Through Identity-Deliberation......Page 164
Bibliography......Page 167
Chapter 10 “The Relatedness of the Unrelatable”: The Holocaust as Trope in Caryl Phillips’s The Nature of Blood......Page 169
Works Cited......Page 183
Chapter 11 The Holocaust in Works by Two Yiddish Writers in Argentina: Simja Sneh and Israel Aszendorf......Page 185
Simja Sneh......Page 186
Israel Aszendorf......Page 192
Bibliography......Page 201
Chapter 12 Edgar Hilsenrath’s Novels: Der Nazi & der Friseur and Berlin… Endstation......Page 203
Der Nazi & der Friseur......Page 207
Works Cited......Page 218
Chapter 13 Transit and Transfer: Between Germany and Israel in the Granddaughters’ Generation......Page 221
Bibliography......Page 234
Introduction......Page 236
Miłosz and Andrzejewski’s Literary Testimonials of the Burning Ghetto......Page 239
“Campo di Fiori” and “The Poor Christian Looks at the Ghetto”: The Inadequacy of the Poetic Tradition in the Reality of the Apocalypse......Page 240
Holy Week: The Failure to Save Christian Love......Page 241
Wajda, Błoński, and Their Failed Politics of the Cultural Memory of the Holocaust......Page 243
Błoński and Wajda: The Rhetoric of Moral Transformation......Page 244
Błoński: The “Light of Truth” and the Promise of Polish Catholic Greatness......Page 245
Wajda: Christian Love in Time of the Apocalypse......Page 247
Conclusion......Page 250
Bibliography......Page 252
Chapter 15 Post-Soviet Migrant Memory of the Holocaust......Page 254
Bibliography......Page 266
Introduction: The Holocaust East and West......Page 269
War and Peace......Page 271
Convergence: Stalin and Hitler......Page 275
Heavy Sand: Squaring the Circle......Page 277
Conclusions......Page 282
Bibliography......Page 287
Chapter 17 Refractions of Holocaust Memory in Stanisław Lem’s Science Fiction......Page 289
Substitution in The Star Diaries......Page 290
Ashes of Memory in Solaris......Page 292
Hidden in Highcastle......Page 294
Tapping Out Memories in Tales of Pirx the Pilot......Page 295
Behind the Masking, First Consideration: Censorship, Lem’s Early Novels, and His Turn Toward SF......Page 296
Behind the Masking, Second Consideration: Lem’s Relationship to His Past......Page 298
The First Exception: His Master’s Voice......Page 299
The Second Exception: “The World as Holocaust” and Faux Book Reviews......Page 301
The Future…and the Terminus......Page 303
Bibliography......Page 305
Part III Poetry......Page 307
Poetry of Witness and Commentary......Page 308
Satunovsky (1913–1982)......Page 310
Slutsky (1919–1986)......Page 315
The Poets as Soviet Jewish Readers......Page 317
Lipkin (1911–2003)......Page 318
Galich (1918–1977)......Page 321
Conclusion......Page 325
Bibliography......Page 327
Chapter 19 “At Last to a Condition of Dignity”: Anthony Hecht’s Holocaust Poetry......Page 328
Bibliography......Page 341
Chapter 20 Wound Marks in the Air and the Shadows Within: A Poetic Examination of Dan Pagis, Paul Celan, and Nelly Sachs......Page 344
Bibliography......Page 357
Introduction: Innocence Preceding the Deluge......Page 358
Antisemitic Poetry Saturates the German Public Sphere......Page 361
A Bierhaus in Hell......Page 374
Germany as an Occupying Power......Page 378
The Binary Structure of Nazi Antisemitic Poetry......Page 386
Conclusion......Page 395
Bibliography......Page 397
Part IV Film and Drama......Page 399
Chapter 22 Holocaust Drama Imagined and Re-imagined: The Case of Charlotte Delbo’s Who Will Carry the Word?......Page 400
Bibliography......Page 414
Chapter 23 Wresting Memory as We Wrestle with Holocaust Representation: Reading László Nemes’s Son of Saul......Page 415
Re-presenting the Holocaust......Page 417
An Innovative Mode of Representing the Holocaust in Film......Page 418
Standing Apart from Hollywood......Page 426
Influences and Sources......Page 429
The Limits of Representation......Page 431
Representation and Healing—Psychic Integration......Page 432
Bibliography......Page 434
Chapter 24 Troubled Aesthetics: Jewish Bodies in Post-Holocaust Film......Page 436
Invisible Aesthetics: “The Murderers Are Among Us”......Page 437
Aesthetic Outlines: Witnessing in “Marianne and Juliane”......Page 441
“Phoenix”: The Invisible Beauty of the Survivor......Page 446
Bibliography......Page 453
Chapter 25 Screen Memories: Trauma, Repetition, and Survival in Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker......Page 455
Bibliography......Page 470
Chapter 26 Haunted Dreams: The Legacy of the Holocaust in And Europe Will Be Stunned......Page 471
Visual Allusion and Memory......Page 474
Complicating Memory......Page 475
The Multidirectionality of History......Page 479
Art as Countermonument......Page 482
Bibliography......Page 486
Part V Graphic Culture......Page 487
Chapter 27 “Master Race”: Graphic Storytelling in the Aftermath of the Holocaust......Page 488
Conclusion......Page 498
Bibliography......Page 503
Introduction......Page 506
Translating Vladek: The Survivor in Spanish and Other Romance Languages......Page 509
Untranslatable Vladek: Auschwitz and Beyond......Page 514
Bibliography......Page 522
Introduction......Page 524
Responsible Holocaust Comic and Cartoon Representations......Page 527
Irresponsible Holocaust Comic and Cartoon Representations......Page 531
Conclusion......Page 537
Bibliography......Page 543
Chapter 30 Claustrophobic in the Gaps of Others: Affective Investments from the Queer Margins......Page 547
Positioning Survivors’ Descendants......Page 548
Feeling Strange......Page 554
“Alan”......Page 555
“Transparent”......Page 556
“Part Hole”......Page 558
“The Diary of Mini Horrorwitz”......Page 561
Conclusion......Page 564
Bibliography......Page 566
Chapter 31 Recrafting the Past: Graphic Novels, the Third Generation, and Twenty-First Century Representations of the Holocaust......Page 568
Drawing the Past in Words and Images......Page 569
Generational Transmission......Page 571
Recrafting the Past......Page 572
Family Stories......Page 574
Mapping Memory......Page 576
Memory Texts, Memory Objects......Page 578
Conclusion......Page 581
Bibliography......Page 584
Chapter 32 X-Men at Auschwitz? Superheroes, Nazis, and the Holocaust......Page 586
World War II and the Emergence of the Superhero......Page 587
X-Men and the Holocaust......Page 588
Mutants, Trauma, and Genocide......Page 589
History as Fiction or Fable as Fact?......Page 593
Magneto at Auschwitz......Page 594
Decoding “Aftermath, Part Two”......Page 596
The Wolverine at Sobibor......Page 597
Conclusion......Page 601
Bibliography......Page 604
Chapter 33 An Iconic Image Through the Lens of Ka-tzetnik: The Murder of the Mother and the Essence of Auschwitz......Page 607
Ka-tzetnik 135633: A Memory and a Name......Page 609
The Key: The Murder of the Mother......Page 611
A Photographic Icon of the Essence of Auschwitz......Page 614
A Closing Reflection......Page 617
Bibliography......Page 622
Chapter 34 Photographing Survival: Survivor Photographs of, and at, Auschwitz......Page 624
Karel Beran’s Documentary Photographs of Traces of His Forced Labor......Page 627
Morris Pfeffer’s Portrait Photographs of Survivor Authority......Page 628
Michael Zylberberg, Judith Perlaki, and Elizabeth Kent’s Portrait Photographs of Survivor Liberation......Page 630
Conclusions: Survivor “Selfies” at Auschwitz?......Page 634
Bibliography......Page 638
Part VI Historical and Cultural Narratives......Page 640
Chapter 35 A Reconsideration of Sexual Violence in German Colonial and Nazi Ideology and Its Representation in Holocaust Texts......Page 641
Colonial Sexual Violence and Impunity in GSWA......Page 643
Nanda Herbermann......Page 650
Liana Millu......Page 652
Bibliography......Page 657
Chapter 36 The Place of Holocaust Survivor Videotestimony: Navigating the Landmarks of First-Person Audio-Visual Representation......Page 659
Bibliography......Page 675
Chapter 37 Beckett’s Holocaust......Page 677
i......Page 678
ii......Page 681
iii......Page 684
iii......Page 687
Bibliography......Page 693
Chapter 38 The Auschwitz Women’s Camp: An Overview and Reconsideration......Page 696
Bibliography......Page 712
Chapter 39 Aryan Feminity: Identity in the Third Reich......Page 714
Bibliography......Page 729
Chapter 40 Reconsidering Jewish Rage After the Holocaust......Page 732
Defining Revenge......Page 734
Personal Narratives......Page 735
Psychology of Revenge......Page 736
Gendered Narrative Construction......Page 737
Gender and Revenge Acts......Page 739
The Evolution of Elie Wiesel’s Thought......Page 742
Conclusion......Page 745
Bibliography......Page 748
Chapter 41 Holocaust Shoes: Metonymy, Matter, Memory......Page 750
The “Secret Life” of Holocaust Shoes......Page 753
Shoes as Loot and Evidence: Holocaust Photography......Page 755
Shoes as Memorial Objects: Metonymy and Synechdoche......Page 759
The Pile Redeemed: Abraham Sutzkever’s “A Load of Shoes”......Page 764
Shoes as Postmemorial Teleporters: Transparent......Page 766
Bibliography......Page 771
Chapter 42 From Holocast Studies to Trauma Studies and Back Again......Page 774
The Holocaust and Trauma in Contemporary Literature......Page 779
The Postmodern Condition......Page 783
Bibliography......Page 790
Contributors’ Notes......Page 793
Index......Page 806
