Language:
English
Year of publication:
2007
Titel der Quelle:
Partial Answers
Angaben zur Quelle:
5,1 (2007) 51-75
Keywords:
Stern, Daniel,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature
;
American literature History and criticism
Abstract:
Discusses two novels, "Who Shall Live, Who Shall Die" (1963) and "After the War" (1967), that have been omitted from the canon of Holocaust literature even though "Who Shall Live" was one of the first American novels to address the topic of the Holocaust. This work focuses on the pathological mechanism of acting out, while the second uses plot and structure to present a working-through of trauma. "Who Shall Live" presents the destructive effect of trauma on a former concentration camp inmate (who was a child of 14 at the time) who substituted other prisoners' names on a deportation list instead of his name and those of his mother and sister (who, in the end, did not survive). The protagonist's survivor guilt, thus, affects a victim who was also a victimizer. As a successful New York theater director, who has put his past behind him, Kramer decides to produce a play about a Jewish Kapo who must decide which of his prisoners will live and which will die. The play ends with the Kapo's suicide. The play becomes Kramer's narrative attempt at working through the trauma of the comparable decision which he was forced to make.
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