1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910616383003321

Autore

Dickson David John

Titolo

Holocaust Fiction and the Question of Impiety / / by David John Dickson

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2022

ISBN

9783031123948

9783031123931

Edizione

[1st ed. 2022.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (266 pages)

Disciplina

306.85

809.93358405318

Soggetti

World War, 1939-1945

Europe - History

History, Modern

Civilization - History

Collective memory

History of World War II and the Holocaust

European History

Modern History

Cultural History

Memory Studies

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Introduction -- 2. Holocaust Synecdoche: Surrendering to the Simplifying Impulse -- 3. Second-Generation Fiction and the Legacy of the Hinge Generation -- 4. Visualising the Holocaust: Landmarks, Photographs and Post-Memory -- 5. Contemporary Fiction and Embodied Experience: Feeling the Holocaust -- 6. Between Irreverence and Impiety: Laying the Foundations for a Rosean Approach to Holocaust Representation -- 7. Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

This book discusses the issues underlying contemporary Holocaust fiction. Using Gillian Rose’s theory of Holocaust piety, it argues that, rather than enhancing our understanding of the Holocaust,



contemporary fiction has instead become overly focused on gratuitous representations of bodies in pain. The book begins by discussing the locations and imagery which have come to define our understanding of the Holocaust, before then highlighting how this gradual simplification has led to an increasing sense of emotional distance from the historical past. Holocaust fiction, the book argues, attempts to close this emotional and temporal distance by creating an emotional connection to bodies in pain. Using different concepts relating to embodied experience – from Sonia Kruks’ notion of feeling-with to Alison Landsberg’s prosthetic memory – the book analyses several key examples of Holocaust literature and film to establish whether fiction still possesses the capacity to approach the Holocaust impiously. David John Dickson is a literature specialist, focusing on fiction relating to the Holocaust. He has previously published papers relating to the ethical representation of the Holocaust past – from Heather Morris’s presentation of gendered suffering, to the fictional representation of death in the gas chamber. He also has an interest in the history of the Jewish ghetto police, and has published a paper relating to the confessional diary of Calel Perechodnik.