Language:
English
Year of publication:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
Neohelicon
Angaben zur Quelle:
47,2 (2020) 615-627
Keywords:
Némirovsky, Irène, Criticism and interpretation
;
Pap, Karoly, Criticism and interpretation
;
European fiction Congresses Jewish authors
;
History and criticism
;
Jews Cultural assimilation 20th century
;
History
;
Jews Identity 20th century
;
History
;
Jews in literature
;
Jews History 1918-1945
Abstract:
Irène Némirovsky (1903–1942) and Károly Pap (1897–1945) belong roughly to the same generation, and shared the same fate, dying at a young age in a Nazi concentration camp. Aside from that terrible similarity, many things separated them. But they were both deeply preoccupied with what I am calling the “Jewish question for Jews,” and produced powerful fictional works depicting the individual malaise and the existential dilemmas that characterized the lives of secular or acculturated Jews in Europe in the early twentieth-century. They can both be called “portrayers of conflicted Jewish identity.” I analyze some of their most characteristic works, showing that they shared a highly pessimistic view about the possibilities of Jewish assimilation.
DOI:
10.1007/s11059-020-00554-x
URL:
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