Language:
English
Year of publication:
2002
Titel der Quelle:
French Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
56,2 (2002) 207-219
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Jewish children in the Holocaust
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Personal narratives
Abstract:
Examines the autobiographical writings of three French writers - Sarah Kofman, Georges Perec, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet, who as Jewish children spent part of the war in hiding and lost one or both of their parents. Refers to the child survivors as members of the "liminal generation, " since their historical, existential, and psychical condition was one of "entre-deux": between childhood and adulthood, between Judaism and Christianity, between memory and history, between fiction and historiography, between French citizenship and Jewishness. The three writers faced an "aporia" or impasse of memory due to their traumatic experiences, and sought ways of saying what could not be said. Perec resorted to extreme indirection while Vidal-Naquet had the advantage of being a historian with some sources available to him. Kofman succeeded in dealing with her identity dilemma in her last work.
Note:
Mainly on Sarah Kofman, Georges Perec and Pierre Vidal-Naquet who spent years of their childhood in hiding during the Holocaust.
URL:
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