Language:
English
Year of publication:
1998
Titel der Quelle:
History and Memory; Studies in Representation of the Past
Angaben zur Quelle:
10,2 (1998) 5-42
Keywords:
Lanzmann, Claude.
;
Raczymow, Henri,
;
Rymkiewicz, Jarosław Marek.
;
Spiegelman, Art,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in motion pictures
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature
Abstract:
Discusses two recent literary works on the Holocaust: the novel "Un cri sans voix" (1985) [in English: "Writing the Book of Esther"], by Henri Raczymow, a French author born to a family of Polish Jewish immigrants, and Jarosław M. Rymkiewicz's novel "Umschlagplatz" (1988) [in English: "Final Station: Umschlagplatz"]. Both works may be regarded as vicarious testimonies. Like Claude Lanzmann's film "Shoah" and Art Spiegelman's "Maus", they contain elements of documentary realism and mediated recollection. Both novels describe the summer of 1942 in the Warsaw ghetto. Rymkiewicz, a non-Jewish Pole, places himself in the novel as a bystander in wartime Poland. Fictional heroes in both novels act side by side with historical figures. Suggests that with the eventual passing away of the last witness of the Holocaust, such literature, bearing vicarious witness, will acquire prominence as a tool for comprehending the Holocaust.
Note:
Especially on Henri Raczymow's "La cri sans voix" and Jaroslaw Marek Rymkiewicz's "Umschlagplatz".
,
A revised version appeared in "Shaping Losses" (2001).
URL:
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