Witnessing from a Distance: Postwar Literary Representations of the Holocaust
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Wilfrid Laurier University Scholars Commons @ Laurier Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) 2010 Witnessing from a Distance: Postwar Literary Representations of the Holocaust Miriam Carolin Raethel Wilfrid Laurier University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Raethel, Miriam Carolin, "Witnessing from a Distance: Postwar Literary Representations of the Holocaust" (2010). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive). 1104. https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/1104 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Library and Archives Bibliothèque et ?F? 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. ¦?I Canada WITNESSING FROM A DISTANCE: POSTWAR LITERARY REPRESENTATIONS OF THE HOLOCAUST by Miriam Carolin Raethel (Magister Artium, Katholische Universität Eichstätt, 2004 Master of Arts, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2005) THESIS Submitted to the Department ofEnglish and Film Studies/ Faculty of Graduate Studies in partial fulfilment ofthe requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Wilfrid Laurier University © Miriam Raethel 2010 ii Abstract This thesis concerns itself with the possibilities and limits ofwitnessing the Holocaust from a distance. It analyzes the ways in which the notion of distance - temporal, geographical, linguistic, and aesthetic - influences, shapes, and alters the act of bearing witness to a remote historical event, which, because of its enormity, seemingly defies the act of witnessing and thus of representation. This study investigates the long-lasting impact of the Holocaust on subsequent generations, particularly on third-generation descendants of victims and perpetrators, and explores how the traumatic legacy of the Holocaust locates new forms of representation within the context ofpostmodernism, which, because of its emphasis on fragmentation, on the loss of teleology and causality, and its suspicion of master narratives, offers innovative and experimental representational strategies for what has commonly been regarded as unrepresentable. By focussing on the figure of the distant witness, that is, on members of postwar generations, this thesis highlights the representational complexities prompted by the complication of attempting to remember and to represent an event whose very extremities and incomprehensibilities render it, in itself, unrepresentable. Investigating the ways in which memory is constructed and in turn represented, and how this representation, or non-representation, of traumatic memory affects cultural and collective identities, and the ethical responsibility for ongoing remembrance, this thesis ultimately explores the ways in which the notion of distance, as an integral part ofthe act of witnessing, influences, determines, and shapes how a culture situates itself in relation to its past. iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I wish to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Lynn Shakinovsky. It was both a pleasure and a privilege to write this thesis under her supervision. The German word for advisor, Doktormutter, truly applies to her: she genuinely cared for me both as a student and as a person. Without her help, guidance, support, and mentorship throughout the years, and without all the advice she offered particularly in terms of the difficulties and hardships I faced as an international student, this thesis would not exist. I am also deeply indebted to my committee members, Dr. Sandra Singer and Dr. Russell Kilboum, who supported the process of completing mis project by giving me important advice and by offering many valuable suggestions mat helped improve this thesis. A number of friends, both in Canada and Germany, supported me in various ways during the process of writing this thesis. I would like to thank Kristen Poluyko, Sandi Pasternak, Sadie, and Hershey for their ,ove and friendship, and most importantly, for being my Canadian «family» I am very grateful for everything that they have done for me. As well, I owe my deepest gratitude to Lesa Smith for countless hours filled with fun and laughter, for her emotional support throughout, and, most importantly, for her friendship. iv My thanks also go to Heather Debling for all the many inspiring conversations we had over the course of me writing this thesis, for sharing my passion for trauma theory, and for her intellectual support throughout. A big Dankeschön to Karola und Bubi Zier for making it possible for me to see Buchenwald concentration camp, for their belief in me, and, finally, for all the fun times that presented welcomed and much needed breaks from the lonesome task of writing this thesis. Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my family. Despite long distances, they have always been there for me. To my brother, Maximilian Räthel, who has supported me in numerous ways since I first came to Canada - without his love and encouragement, I would not have finished this thesis; and to my Mutti, Birgitta Räthel, who truly is the best person in the world. Her love, support, encouragement, advice, and belief in me made the writing and completion ofthis thesis possible. To her, I dedicate this dissertation. V Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 Towards a New Poetics of Witnessing The Holocaust in Historical Perspective 1 3 The Holocaust and the Reconfiguration of Historiography 22 The Holocaust - A Crisis of Witnessing 28 The Figure ofthe Holocaust Witness 34 A New Poetics of Witnessing 3 5 CHAPTER 2 Between Guilt and Suffering - German Memory of the Holocaust and the War Introduction 48 Discourses on German Vergangenheitsbewältigung in a Divided Germany 54 Memory of the Holocaust after Re-Unification 65 "Warum erst jetzt?"- On the Belated Re-Appearance of Traumatic Memories 74 From Historical to Structural Trauma - The Absence of European Jewry 76 Between Public and Private Discourses of Memory: Tanja Dückers' s Himmelskörper 79 Conclusion 84 vi CHAPTER 3 (Un)Covering the Past: 'Post-Holocaust Memories' in Rachel Seiffert's The Dark Room and Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated Introduction 87 From History to Memory to Imagination 92 History as Trauma 96 The Dark Room of History - Rachel Seiffert' s The Dark Room 1 03 Illuminating Trauma - Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated 115 Conclusion 122 CHAPTER 4 A Postmodern Witnessing of the Holocaust - Martin Amis's Time's Arrow Introduction 126 A Double Post - Postmodern Post-Holocaust Literature 1 3 1 In the End: the Beginning - Narrative Reversal in Time 's Arrow 1 40 The Identity of the Narrative Voice 1 49 A Postmodern Witnessing ofthe Holocaust 158 Conclusion 163 CHAPTER 5 The Future of Memory - Witnessing the Holocaust in John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Introduction 166 Representing the Holocaust from an Aesthetic Distance 169 vii A Children's Literature of Atrocity 174 A Contemporary Children's Novel about the Holocaust - John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas 1 82 Bruno's Family - A Microcosm of German Society During the Third Reich 183 Nazism and Education 1 87 The Fence, or the Impossibility of Friendship 1 93 Conclusion 198 CONCLUSION 202 BIBLIOGRAPHY 213 1 Introduction In Unclaimed Experience, Cathy Caruth states that one's own trauma is "tied up with the trauma of another" and that a "trauma may [thus] lead. .to the encounter with another, through the very possibility and surprise of listening to another's wound" (8). The trauma