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Home CCSU Theses & Dissertations Surviving Blame: The Holocaust's Literary Perpetrator

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Surviving Blame: The Holocaust's Literary Perpetrator

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Identifier	Thesis 1966
Author	Wright, Elizabeth Sarah, 1966-
Title	Surviving Blame: The Holocaust's Literary Perpetrator
Publisher	Central Connecticut State University
Date	2008
Resource Type	Master's Thesis
Notes	Typically, scholars approach Holocaust literature with a focus solely on history or on trauma theory. And yet, as I propose in 'The Holocaust's Literary Perpetrator,' these modes of examination are not sufficient in their explanations of blame. History, through its focus on 'accurate reconstruction,' often fails to account for the violent, urgent, and graphic depictions of some of the most valuable chronicles of Holocaust experience, especially the memoirs and poetry that take up the question of blame in Holocaust literature. Trauma theory, on the other hand, is problematic because its focus on the unconscious and failures in representation ultimately suggests there is no 'truth' to be articulated around traumatic history-- when, in fact, there is. My thesis offers an answer to this problem with an eye towards history, while still keeping history in its proper place. I argue that representations of blame should be examined according to three categories: the figurehead or State-- such as Adolf Hitler, the S.S., or Nazi Germany-- that is typically discussed in historical accounts; the direct tormentor, typically discussed in second-hand or second-generation literary accounts of the Holocaust; and the more philosophical ideas such as God or the world typically discussed in first-hand literary accounts by survivors themselves. As revealed by these distinctions, the more distanced accounts-- such as those found in history or literature of the second generation-- very quickly appear to locate one individual to blame for the Holocaust because it is somehow easier to grasp that way. Once Hitler or the S.S. or the direct tormentors in the camps are gone, they seem to insist, the Holocaust appears to be over. However, the Holocaust literature written by those who actually survived the camps do not allow for such an easy explanation: by calling out God or the world or humanity at large, their work suggests the Holocaust may be over in one sense, but yet its causes are still all too present in another sense. It is in looking at literary representations of blame in this way that something new can be added to our understanding of Holocaust literature: the ultimate success-- and not failure, as trauma theorists argue-- is in articulating the emotion and blame that pervades these texts, as well as the complex understanding of how blame should and ought to be located in the first place. By developing this broader understanding of blame and exposing the inability of trauma theory or history to fully grasp the dynamics at work in Holocaust literature, the reader can explore fully all of the nuances in the literature itself.
Subject	Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature
Department	Department of English
Advisor	Pozorski, Aimee L. (Aimee Lynn)
Type	Text
Digital Format	application/pdf
Language	eng
OCLC number	713733980
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