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Thesis FINAL i The Problematic Nature of Modern Holocaust Fiction: From Holocaust Impiety to the Suffering Body David John Dickson The thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Portsmouth. (Submitted: September, 2019) ii Abstract This thesis takes issue with Emily Miller Budick’s assertion that Holocaust fiction no longer needs “to establish its legitimacy against the charge that a fictional text is either inadequate, inappropriate or even endangering to the task of representing the Nazi genocide of the Second World War” (2015, p. 1). It argues instead that modern Holocaust fiction – texts written between the year 2000 and the present – demonstrates a particularly reductive and depthless approach to the subject, which is typified by a growing obsession with the suffering body. This stems, I contend, from a specifically Auschwitz-oriented understanding of the Shoah which has gradually been solidified in both commemorative culture and fictional recreations of the event over the last half-century. The works utilised span from 1961 to 2018. While the pre-21st century texts are used to establish problematic trends in Holocaust writing, those written from the year 2000 forward are assessed according to Berel Lang’s standard of silence. In contrast to Budick’s position, the thesis argues that a text must be “more probative, more incisive” or “more revealing” (Lang, 2000, p. 18) than silence in order to have societal value. Many modern texts, it argues, do not meet these criteria. Though the thesis utilises the work of several theorists, two particular figures have shaped the central argument: Alison Landsberg and Gillian Rose. Landsberg’s theory of “prosthetic memory” is used to explore the notion that modern fiction has become overly reliant on recreations of bodily suffering as a means of post-memorial connection with the past. Rose’s theory of Holocaust Piety is then used to outline the condition modern Holocaust fiction should aspire to. While pious texts are designed to keep the Holocaust ineffable, by maintaining psychological distance from the victims and perpetrators, impious texts are intended to demystify the Holocaust. For the Holocaust to have continued meaning in the present, I argue, we must come to a more psychologically and culturally particular (or impious) understanding of the victims of the Shoah. We cannot understand them only as suffering bodies. iii Content List Declaration Page 1 List of Illustrations 2 Introduction 3 Methodology 8 Critical Field 13 Textual Choices and Rationale 22 The Structure 24 Chapter I: Holocaust Synecdoche: Surrendering to the Simplifying Impulse 30 The Depreciating Value of the Auschwitz Tattoo 35 The Many Facets of the Cattle Car 50 The Enduring Legacy of the Sexualized Sufferer 63 Conclusion 80 Chapter II: Second-Generation Holocaust Fiction and the Legacy of the Hinge Generation 84 Thane Rosenbaum and the Failure of Transmission 89 The Failure of Recovery 107 Shalom Auslander and the Rootless Holocaust 124 Conclusion 138 Chapter III: Visualizing the Holocaust: Landmarks, Photographs and Post-Memory 141 Representing the Arrival Process 146 Representing Life and Death in Auschwitz 166 A Gratuitous Approach to Representation 184 Conclusion 203 Chapter IV: Exploring the Limits of Modern Holocaust Fiction: From Fraternity to the Suffering Body 207 Ida Fink and a Feeling of Fraternity for the Holocaust Dead 211 The Tattooist of Auschwitz and the Problems Underpinning Modern Holocaust Fiction 221 Shalom Auslander, Jonathan Littell and the Body 235 Conclusion 256 Conclusion 261 Bibliography 277 Appendix: Certificate of Ethics Review 288 Appendix: UPR16 Form 290 1 Declaration Page Declarartion Whilst registered as a candidate for the above degree, I have not been registered for any other research award. The results and conclusions embodied in this thesis are the work of the named candidate and have not been submitted for any other academic award. Word Count: 84, 284 (including references). 2 List of Illustrations Chapter I Figure 1: A still from Europa (0:10:52). 52 Figure 2: A still from Europa (0:41:49). 54 Figure 3: A still from Europa (0:42:01). 54 Figure 4: A still from Europa (0:56:31). 56 Figure 5: Photograph #78358 (USHMM). Ebensee, Austria. 56 Chapter II Figure 6: A still from Triumph of the Spirit (0:05:35). 118 Figure 7: A still from Triumph of the Spirit (0:05:42). 118 Chapter III Figure 8: A still from Triumph of the Spirit (0:13:46). 149 Figure 9: A still from Triumph of the Spirit (0:13:55). 149 Figure 10: A still from Schindler’s List (0:17:45). 150 Figure 11: Spiegelman, 2003, p. 159 153 Figure 12: Photograph #77241 (USHMM). Auschwitz-Birkenau. 156 Figure 13: A still from Triumph of the Spirit (0:17:06). 157 Figure 14: A still from Schindler’s List (0:23:36).1 160 Figure 15: Yad Vashem Photo Archives. Item ID: 35059. 161 Figure 16: A still from The Grey Zone (0:22:09). 163 Figure 17: A still from The Grey Zone (0:22:28). 163 Figure 18: Spiegelman, 2011, p. 105 169 Figure 19: M. Bourke-White. Buchenwald, April 1945. Life Magazine, Time Inc. 170 Figure 20: Spiegelman, 2003, p. 169. 171 Figure 21: Spiegelman, 2003, p. 201. 173 Figure 22: Croci, 2009, p. 45. 175 Figure 23: Yad Vashem Photo Archives, Item ID: 103371. 176 Figure 24: Croci, 2009, p. 41. 179 Figure 25: Croci, 2009, p. 55. 180 Figure 26: A still from The Grey Zone (0:36:58). 199 Figure 27: A still from The Grey Zone (0:38:24). 200 Chapter IV Figure 28: Anne Frank. June, 1942. Source: Anne Frank House 239 Figure 29: James Cochran’s portrait of Anne Frank. 239 Figure 30: Eduardo Kobra’s Anne Frank Mural. 240 Figure 31: Anne Frank, A28, Netherlands. 240 1 The timestamps for Figures 10 and 14 both refer to the second disc of the standard UK DVD release of Schindler’s List. 3 Introduction It has been many years since Holocaust fiction has had to establish its legitimacy against the charge that a fictional text is either inadequate, inappropriate or even endangering to the task of representing the Nazi genocide of the Second World War. (Budick, 2015, p. 1) In the opening of her study The Subject of Holocaust Fiction, Emily Miller Budick suggests that Holocaust fiction – a body of texts previously described by Sue Vice as inherently “scandalous” and liable to inspire “repulsion and acclaim in equal measure” (2000, p. 1) – no longer needs to justify its own capacity to represent the horrors of the Nazi genocide. By making this claim, Budick is asserting that the position of restraint favoured by critics such as Berel Lang is now a thing of the past. Lang’s core position is that historical writing is simply “more adequate”, “more compelling” and indeed “more valuable” (2003, p. 140) as a means of representing the subject. Chief among his concerns, as Bernard Harrison notes, is the notion that the author will fundamentally warp historical fact in his attempt to reframe it into a narrative. In short, Holocaust fiction runs the inherent risk of incorrectly interpreting and foundationally misrepresenting the truth of the Holocaust. Holocaust fiction, therefore, has the potential to put forward and then perpetuate a misreading and misrepresentation of the Holocaust past, one which will potentially alter our collective cultural memory of the atrocity. As Harrison puts it: “On the one hand, [the writer’s] choices will exhibit a bias determined by his personality and outlook, which will work to interpose that persona and point of view between the reader and the unvarnished facts of the Holocaust” (2006, p. 81). The inbuilt limitations of the author – from their personal prejudices to their partial readings of the historical raw data – will likely influence their presentation of the subject. While the phrase “unvarnished facts” may be considered problematic, Holocaust texts undoubtedly 4 require a historical foundation on which to construct their narrative.2 As Vice has noted, “intertextuality is likely to be the central element in Holocaust fiction” (2000, p. 161). By this she means that Holocaust fiction is explicitly reliant on “anterior sources” (p. 161) – largely survivor texts and assorted historical documents – in order to provide a foundation of authenticity for the piece of work in question. However, this thesis argues, our current post-memorial distance from the Holocaust is beginning to profoundly affect the relative value of modern-day Holocaust fiction.3 Returning to Budick’s quotation, it argues that many modern Holocaust texts – particularly those attempting to depict the reality of life within the camp system – are inadequate, inappropriate and even endangering to the task of representing the Nazi genocide. This thesis explores the gradual conceptual narrowing of the Holocaust, as the historical Holocaust has been re-shaped into an explicitly Auschwitz-centric vision of the atrocity. As Irving Howe notes, the death camp now represents “what must be considered the essential Holocaust” (1988, p. 189). As Tim Cole implies, this broader vision of the death camp has devolved into one defining location: “More than any other place, ‘Auschwitz’ has come to symbolise everything about the ‘Holocaust’. ‘Auschwitz’ is to the ‘Holocaust’ what ‘Graceland’ is to ‘Elvis’” (1999, pp. 98-99). Auschwitz, therefore, has become the focal point of modern Holocaust memory. It is the defining element of the Shoah which modern 2 Hayden White, for instance, would argue that historical raw data must be narrativized in order for it to have meaning. Facts cannot stand on their own but must be framed within a narrative in order for them to have significance. As White puts it: “For example, no historical event is intrinsically tragic; it can only be conceived as such from a particular point of view or from within the context of a structured set of events of which it is an element enjoying a privileged place (1978, p.
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