Master Thesis

JOKE JACOBS 2008-2009 MASTER THESIS “GUARDIANS OF AN ABSENT MEANING”: TRANSGENERATIONAL TRAUMA AND (DIS)CONTINUITIES BETWEEN JEWISH AMERICAN WRITERS OF THE SECOND AND THIRD GENERATION. ART SPIEGELMAN’S MAUS AND JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER’S EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED. Supervisor: DR. PHILIPPE CODDE Department of English Literature Paper submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of “MASTER IN DE VERGELIJKENDE MODERNE LETTERKUNDE” 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. PREFACE 5 II. INTRODUCTION 6 III. THE SECOND GENERATION 9 THE INITIAL TRAUMA PASSING ON A LEGACY: MEMORIAL CANDLES THE CHILD AS VICARIOUS WITNESS “I WASN’T THERE”: A LIFE IN EXILE OR THE ABSENT PRESENCE OF THE HOLOCAUST THE TRAUMA OF THE SECOND GENERATION WRITING AS A WAY OF WORKING THROUGH: KEEPING A NON-MEMORY ALIVE IV. ART SPIEGELMAN’S MAUS AS AN ILLUSTRATION OF SECOND-GENERATION WRITING 23 “MY FATHER BLEEDS HISTORY” “…AND HERE MY TROUBLES BEGAN…” “PRISONER ON THE HELL PLANET” WRITING POETRY AFTER [M]AUSCHWITZ IS BARBARIC 3 V. THE THIRD GENERATION: JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER’S EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED 33 EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED IN THE LIGHT OF THE SECOND GENERATION AND MAUS CONTROVERSIAL NARRATION AUTHORIAL PRESENCE AND IDENTITY MEDIATION AND LAYERING THIRD-GENERATION CHARACTERISTICS? A POETICS OF ABSENCE THE POWER OF FICTION AND THE FAILURE OF LANGUAGE POSTMEMORIAL INVENTION HISTORICAL DISTANCE AND ETHICAL CONCERNS VI. CONCLUSION 54 HISTORY, MEMORY AND POSTMEMORY IDENTITY ISSUES: HOW THE HOLOCAUST DEFINES YIDDISHKEIT “THE POST-HOLOCAUST CONDITION” THIRD-GENERATION TRAUMA? VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY 60 VIII. APPENDIX: ILLUSTRATIONS 64 4 I. PREFACE I would first of all like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Philippe Codde, for very valuable corrections and advice, and for his interesting course on contemporary American literature last semester, which helped me a lot in writing my master thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Stef Craps for arousing my interest in trauma studies in his course on postcolonial trauma literature last year. In general, my acknowledgement goes to the university, especially the departments of English and Latin, where I have always enjoyed studying the last four years. From the department of Latin, I would like to mention Prof. Wim Verbaal and Dr. Yanick Maes; I will always remember their classes and vibrant enthusiasm, both for their field of study as for the students. I would like to thank my family as well. First and foremost, my parents and grandparents, for their love and (moral and financial) support during the entire period of my studies. In particular my father for re-readings of my thesis and advice in general. A lot of thanks goes to my sister, Eline Jacobs, for being there for me at any time. I also want to thank my close friends and classmates for all the good times (many of which undoubtedly yet to come) and precious memories. Finally, I want to thank my boyfriend, Omar García, who, however literally from a distance at times, always believes in me with unconditional love. 5 II. INTRODUCTION 1 “Schreib und farschreib! Keep writing it down!” The main subject of my master thesis concerns the third generation of Jewish American writers. With this term I refer to the sons and daughters of the second generation, who are themselves children of Holocaust survivors who emigrated to the United States after World War II. My interest goes to the writers of the second and third generation and the way they deal with the Holocaust legacy in their work. For the theoretical frame of my research I rely on trauma studies, since my main concern is the way in which the original Holocaust trauma lives on throughout the generations. How do these writers deal with an event with such an impact and of such magnitude? To what extent do they still feel personally involved? Why does the Holocaust remain such an important topic in all sorts of literature, after more than fifty years? And more important, how do these aspects evolve as they are passed on to the next generation? The second generation has already provided a lot of food for thought the last decades and a wide range of scientific literature is dedicated to their pathology and – in the case of novelists – to their writing. The third generation however, born for the most part from the 1970s onward, has not yet been that elaborately discussed, or be it by writers discussing the second generation and assuming that a certain continuity in ‘symptoms’ is passed on to their offspring, but further details are often not provided. It is precisely my aim to focus on that third generation, whose work is specifically illustrated by Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Everything Is Illuminated, and I will focus in particular on the fact of (dis)continuity between this generation and the previous. To do so, however, it is necessary to explore what is known about the second generation. In order to search for similarities or differences between two phenomena, a good awareness of both separately is needed. Since it concerns a natural evolution, it makes sense to regard the third generation as a (chrono)logical sequel to the second. The second generation will therefore always provide a certain frame, keeping in mind that for the last two decades, the writers of these generations have been active simultaneously. 1 These famous words were spoken by the Jewish historian Simon Dubnow when he was killed by the Germans in Riga. I found this quote in Geoffrey Hartman’s work Holocaust Remembrance: The Shapes of Memory (2) and it was also mentioned by Ephraim Sicher (1998, 44). I am using it here as a motto, since continuing to write ‘it’ down, is exactly what fundamentally defines the post-Holocaust generations. Moreover, it seemed an encouraging reminder during my own writing process. 6 The first chapter of my dissertation will thus be entirely dedicated to the second generation; I will try to define what this term means in general and describe certain recurrent characteristics of how these individuals deal with being raised by parents who have survived the atrocities of one of the biggest genocides in human history. In order to obtain a better idea of what it means to be a second-generation ‘survivor’, I have consulted various scientific and non-scientific literature available on the topic. In the second chapter, I will focus on the literary production of this generation – which proved to be of a high quantity and quality – and more specifically in the United States. Art Spiegelman’s Maus will serve as an illustration to demonstrate how second-generation trauma is represented and dealt with in literature. In the next chapter, I will discuss Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel in the light of the second- generation characteristics. It is my intention to see how Foer, being another step further separated from the initial trauma, writes about the Holocaust in his novel. I will elaborate on the narrative techniques he uses, how certain themes are dealt with, and more importantly, what remains of the Holocaust trauma and if it is possible to still speak of a true trauma. It is interesting to see to what extent Foer’s work definitely differs from Spiegelman’s, but at the same time also shows certain similarities. Important points of discussion will be the issue of the author and the protagonist sharing the same name in both works, the way in which both narrate their stories, the creative and somewhat mythical invention in which Foer engages, the staging of victim and perpetrator in Foer’s novel, and most importantly, the way in which Spiegelman and Foer relate to the trauma of their respective parents and grandparents and to what extent they feel themselves personally affected by this trauma. In the concluding chapter, I will elaborate on some recurrent themes in the literary works I discussed and the secondary literature I consulted to do this. To begin with, the importance of memory, for Jews in particular but also in general; an obsession with the past over the last decades seems to have created a true memory-cult. It is interesting to see how the boundaries of memory are being explored when latter generations reflect on the Holocaust. Memory makes place for “postmemory”, especially in the third generation, as Everything Is Illuminated will prove. A second theme is that of identity and more specifically the troubles post-Holocaust (American) Jews often face when trying to define their identity and how they personally relate to ‘Yiddishkeit’. Knowing that the majority of the Jews have been chased away or killed precisely because of their faith, how do offspring of Holocaust survivors relate to this faith? And the curious thing about Judaism is that it 7 does not seem to imply merely a religion, but an entire identity. Ultimately, I would like to touch upon the idea of levelling the post-Holocaust with the postmodern condition. Discussing these themes will provide an interesting view on the evolution from the second to the third generation and consequently raise questions concerning future generations. Therefore this will lead me back to the core of my thesis, namely, in what way does the initial Holocaust trauma live on in latter generations, especially the third. Is it still possible to speak of trauma as such? Or is there, on the other hand, a form of closure or redemption available? How to explain the continuing obsession with the Holocaust after half a century? Is the third generation finally able to break loose from its family’s dark ghost? Is it able to give meaning or find some consolation in the void the Holocaust left behind? And what is the prospective for future generations? Is it possible to see a certain evolution? The answers to all these questions are not that obvious of course, and much is yet to be written and read as novels of the third generation are only just emerging since about a decade ago.

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