Words and Witness: Narrative and Aesthetic Strategies in the Representation of the Holocaust

192 Pages·2000·11.57 MB·English

by  Lea Wernick Fridman

Words and Witness

Words and Witness
9(arrative and 5lesthetic Strategies in the
~presentation of the :;{o{ocaust
Lea Wernic(!Jr idman
State University of New York Press
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2000 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fridman, Lea Wernick, 1949-
Words and witness: narrative and aesthetic strategies in the
representation of the Holocaust / Lea Wernick Fridman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-4609-3 (HC : acid free). - ISBN 0-7914-4610-7 (PB :
acid free)
1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature. 1. Title.
PN56.H55F75 2000
809'.93358-dc21
99-42869
CIP
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
g: or my cnifaren,
Snaou{, Snosnana, 9{utnie
Micna{, Mosfie, ana .9I.6ie
.9I.na for my granaaaugnters,
Cnava ana J{aaassa

· .. but I have a voice too and for good or evil mine
is the speech that cannot be silenced.
Joseph Conrad
My corner of Europe, owing to the extraordinary
and lethal events that have been occurring there,
comparable only to violent earthquakes, affords a
peculiar perspective. As a result, all of us who come
from those parts appraise poetry slightly different
than do the majority of my audience, for we tend to
view it as a witness and participant in one of
mankind's major transformations.
Czeslaw Milosz

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1 History, Fantasy, and Horror 5
2 The Silence of Historical Traumatic Experience:
Aharon Appelfeld's Badenheim 1939 33
3 Silence in Language and in History 53
4 Historical Horror and the Literary Act of Witness:
An Examination of Elie Wiesel's Night 87
5 The Literary Act of Witness:
Narrative, Voice, and the Problematic of the Real 99
6 Concluding Thoughts and Promptings 127
Notes 137
Works Consulted 151
Index 165
IX