Holocaust Memory in Contemporary Narratives: Towards a Theory of Transgenerational Empathy

Submitted by Lewis Ward to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English, September 2008

!his thesis is available for library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no "uotation from the thesis may be published #ithout proper ac$no#ledgment

% certify that all material in this thesis #hich is not my o#n #or$ has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the a#ard of a degree by this or any other University &&&&&&&&&&& &&

2 A stract 'hat is the relationship bet#een #riting in the present and the traumatic historical events that form the sub(ect of that #riting) 'hat narrative strategies do authors employ in order to negotiate the ethical and epistemological problems raised by this gap in time and experience) *!rauma theory+ is undermined by clinical controversies and contradictory claims for *literal truth+ and *incomprehensibility+ Similarly, the ,olocaust has been considered inherently unrepresentable unless by those #ho #itnessed it, leading to a false opposition bet#een genres of *testimony+ and *fiction+ - #ay out of these dead ends is to consider the role of the first.person narrator in contemporary ,olocaust narratives 'hile use of this device ris$s an inappropriate level of identification #ith those #hose experience is both extreme and un$no#able, % argue that this problem may be resolved to an extent through *transgenerational empathy+, an approach to the past that is self. reflexive, incorporates ideas of time, memory and generations, and moves both to#ards and a#ay from the victims of the past in a simultaneous gesture of proximity and distance /or this theory % dra# on Dominic$ 0a1apra2s definitions of empathy and *empathic unsettlement+, and on ,ans.3eorg 3adamer2s concept of the *fusion of hori4ons+ bet#een past and present !ransgenerational empathy involves giving e"ual #eight to *memory+ and *history+ -n over.emphasis on memory leads to narratives that are merely identificatory, such as -nne 5ichaels2 Fugitive Pieces and 6in(amin 'il$omirs$i2s Fragments %n contrast, ' 3 Sebald2s use of a narrative persona in The Emigrants and Austerlitz enables transgenerational empathy in narrative by simultaneously imposing layers of distance #hile establishing close personal connection Similarly, 7onathan Safran /oer2s third. generation aesthetic of *post.postmemory+ in Everything is Illuminated uses a *dual persona+ device to foreground empathically the abyss at the heart of any attempt to recapture the past 5y analysis of these authors dra#s on the #ritings of 3illian 8ose, Paul 8icoeur, 5arianne ,irsch and 7ac"ues Derrida ,o#ever, the concept of *transgenerational empathy+ #ould benefit from further research, both in terms of its *temporal dimension+ and the use of narrative personae by other contemporary authors such as Philip 8oth

Ta le of Contents

-bstract !able of 1ontents -c$no#ledgements %ntroduction; ,olocaust memory and the ethics of representation = 5oving beyond notions of literal truth and the belated sublime; the historical, political and clinical controversies of trauma 2 8esolving the problems of identification; 0a1apra, 3adamer, self. reflexivity and transgenerational empathy 9 !he conse"uences of promoting memory over history; identification and deception in -nne 5ichaels2 Fugitive Pieces and 6in(amin 'il$omirs$i2s Fragments : - simultaneous gesture of proximity and distance; the empathic narrative persona in ' 3 Sebald2s *Paul 6ereyter+ and Austerlitz < *-n act of replacement+; duality, post.postmemory and absence in 7onathan Safran /oer2s Everything is Illuminated 1onclusion; the future of transgenerational empathy 'or$s cited

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: Ac!nowledgements

/irst and foremost, % #ould li$e to than$ my inspirational and supportive supervisor, -nthony /othergill, and my $ind yet rigorous examiners, Dr Philip Sch#y4er and Professor Sue @ice !he Department of English at Exeter provided both financial assistance and a deep #ell of advice and encouragementA % am particularly grateful to Dr -na @adillo, Professor 8ic$ 8ylance, Professor 8egenia 3agnier, Dr Dan Borth, Dr 7o 3ill and Professor ,elen !aylor % am also indebted to Dr Shani 8ousso, 8oger Pitt, -lice 6arnaby and Simon 'halley for their comments on #or$ in progress, and to 0esley 'illiams and Dr -li 7udd for proof reading at such short notice 5y parents, -ndy and 3#yneth 'ard, provided vital support Cyet againD, #hich % hope one day to repay /inally, % extend my profound gratitude to 0i4 7ones for her tireless listening, forensic close reading and unflinching belief

< "ntroduction: Holocaust memory and the ethics of representation %t is no# over sixty years since the end of 'orld 'ar %% Eet prose narratives Cnot to mention other art.formsD continue to address the traumatic events of the middle of the t#entieth century 'ithin this literature, a sub.genre of *contemporary ,olocaust narratives+ may be provisionally identified !exts in this group often ac$no#ledge their temporal and generational distance from the event by themati4ing memory in a self. reflexive manner %ndeed, the sub(ect of these narratives is often not so much the ,olocaust itself, but the tension inherent in the act of *remembering+ an event so far from the #riter2s experience #hich nevertheless provo$es a po#erful feeling of proximity in the form of emotional response to the suffering of victims !hin$ing about this situation of contemporary literature generates several "uestions 'hat is the relationship bet#een #riting in the present and the traumatic historical events that form the sub(ect of that #riting) ,o# is this gap in time and experience negotiated in narratives that deal #ith events from previous generations) 'hat strategies do authors employ in these situations, and by #hat imperatives are they guided) !he #or$ on trauma and testimony that emerged in the United States in the =??0s provides a starting point for ans#ering these "uestions /or example, the model in #hich the victim of a traumatic event testifies in the presence of a listener or therapist might be considered suggestive for narrative Cas /elman and 0aub argue in their landmar$ publication Testimony: Crises in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History F=??2GD ,o#ever, this approach raises t#o central problems /irst, the listener in this situation ris$s over.identification #ith the other, #hich may lead to development of a secondary trauma, and a conse"uent loss of critical (udgement Second, inherent to the process is a controversial presumption that healing or redemption is the li$ely or desirable result of tal$ing and remembering %f an analogy is made bet#een this listener and an author #ho chooses to #rite about traumatic events that he or she did not endure or #itness, the problems of over.identification and healing #ould appear to be endemic to ,olocaust literature

H Despite this connection, ho#ever, it is not clear that the application of trauma theory to narrative #ill ade"uately ans#er the "uestions set out above %n 1hapter = of this study % investigate trauma in terms both of its material history and its history as a concept !hough highly suggestive, the tenets of trauma theory are nevertheless undermined by their reliance on certain ideas of memory based on apparently observable phenomena % argue that these notions, #hich include *belatedness+ and a belief in the *literal+ truth of traumatic recall, are inappropriate tools for evaluating contemporary ,olocaust narratives 5oreover, trauma theory is both politically determined and clinically controversial !his is not to say that it cannot generate useful formal analysis of contemporary #riting, #ith -nne 'hitehead2s Trauma Fiction C200:D being the exemplar in this regard ,o#ever, % see$ to build on this #or$ and as$ #hether another model might be more helpful in understanding the relationship of #riting in the present to the traumatic events of the past %n 1hapter 2 % propose to activate for literary study the historian Dominic$ 0a1apra2s notions of empathy and empathic unsettlement, #hich connote ac$no#ledgement of one2s affective response to the suffering of history2s victims #hile retaining a level of ob(ectivity that preserves the alterity of the other % analyse this in relation to identification, #hich as 8obert Eaglestone and others have pointed out is a central problem of the discourses of trauma and the ,olocaust 'ith reference to 3adamer2s notion of the *fusion of hori4ons+, % propose that 0a1aprian empathy in prose narrative can be usefully defined as a simultaneous gesture of proximity and distance % add the term *transgenerational+ to empathy to indicate the dimensions of time and memory that are typically foregrounded in narratives by later generations - further dimension to the debate, and one #hich corresponds to an extent #ith the model of proximity and distance, is the vexed relation bet#een memory and history %n 1hapter 9, % situate 6in(amin 'il$omirs$i2s false memoir Fragments C=??<D and -nne 5ichaels2 poetic novel Fugitive Pieces C=??HD in the context of the memoryIhistory debate that has permeated critical discourse in the humanities since the =?80s % argue that 'il$omirs$i and 5ichaels2 texts over.privilege memory to the extent that they merely identify rather than em athize #ith the ,olocaust victims they depict /or this analysis % broadly align memory #ith affect, identification and proximity, and history #ith intellect, ob(ectivity and distance, to demonstrate again that these false oppositions

> should be bro$en do#n to enable an empathic gesture that ac$no#ledges the value of both %n 1hapter : % argue that such a gesture is achieved in exemplary fashion in the #or$ of ' 3 Sebald, #ith particular reference to the *Paul 6ereyter+ section of The Emigrants C=??9D and the longer narrative Austerlitz C200=D !hese generically hybrid prose #or$s ta$e an obli"ue approach to the ,olocaust through themes of exile, memory and loss 5y focus is on Sebald2s unusual use of a narrator #ho has some biographical correspondence #ith the author and #ho ta$es part in the action, a figure % define as the *empathic narrative persona+ !his device is crucial to #hat % argue is Sebald2s pro(ect of self.reflexively foregrounding the process of 0a1aprian empathy, in #hich he simultaneously imposes layers of narrative distance #hile establishing close personal connection #ith his damaged protagonists !he analysis in this chapter #ill further clarify the particular meaning of empathy being used in the present study %n the Sebaldian narrator2s case, it consists of a refusal to *imagine+ or *picture+ the suffering of others, #hile nevertheless *#or$ing through+ the inevitable affective emotions raised by our $no#ledge of them, in a consistent and convincing re(ection of identification !his conclusion is reached #ith the help of the analysis by Sebald scholars -nne /uchs and 7 7 0ong, in particular their emphasis on the #riter2s self.reflexive techni"ue, and through the criti"ue of ,olocaust representation advanced by the philosopher 3illian 8ose in !ourning "ecomes the La# C=??HD %n 1hapter < % turn to the very different approach to the ,olocaust ta$en by 7onathan Safran /oer in Everything is Illuminated C2002D !his experimental and semi. autobiographical novel addresses themes of generational memory, family secrets, and the ethical relation of the present to the past, through a combination of travel narrative, epistolary interludes and magical realism /oer himself has called his novel less an *act of creation+ than an *act of replacement+ %n this chapter % evaluate ho# far this act constitutes an empathic relation to the past % consider several contextual elements, including contemporary ,olocaust debates in the United States C/oer2s country of originD, and the *Ei4$or+ boo$s of 7e#ish remembrance that serve as a contrast #ith /oer2s re.imagining of history % also investigate the relevance to my thesis of 5arianne ,irsch2s notion of *postmemory+, first described in Family Frames: Photogra hy, $arrative and Postmemory C=??>D, and of Paul 8icoeur2s theory of historical fiction, as

8 put for#ard in Time and $arrative C=?88D /inally, % consider 7ac"ues Derrida2s insight that presence is al#ays deferred in an *infinite chain+ of *supplements+ Using these contextual and theoretical models, % argue that /oer2s novel self.reflexively foregrounds the problems of memory through its narrative structure 'hile a version of the author enters the novel in person, establishing a deeply felt bloodline connection to his ancestors, his failed "uest is narrated by another, thus providing ob(ective distance through trenchant criticisms !his *dual persona+ device forms a chain of Derridean supplements or *replacements+ that gestures to the inevitable absence at the heart of any attempt to recapture the past /oer2s third.generation aesthetic of *post.postmemory+ thus achieves a degree of empathy by revealing the abyss at the heart of any attempt at transgenerational identification /inally, in a brief conclusion % suggest some possible avenues of further research into the "uestion of transgenerational empathy % introduce the topic of #hat might be termed the *temporal dimension+ to the gesture of proximity and distance % also suggest Philip 8oth as another author #ho both ma$es use of personae in narrative and addresses the traumatic past, particularly in his novel The Plot Against America C200:D 8oth, unli$e Sebald and /oer, #as alive during 'orld 'ar %%, and therefore occupies an interesting position of geographical distance and personal memory #hich could be used to broaden the scope of my concept of transgenerational empathy in narrative %n the remainder of this %ntroduction % provide context for the thesis outlined above /irst % discuss the ethical and epistemological debates surrounding ,olocaust representation Secondly, % evaluate other recent approaches to my topic and sho# ho# my thesis adds to these contributions /inally, % define the parameters of *contemporary ,olocaust narratives+ #ith reference to the history of literature on the sub(ect, other attempts to organi4e the field, and further examples of recent prose narratives not discussed in the main body of the thesis % begin, ho#ever, #ith an example from outside the category of ,olocaust literature %an 5cE#an2s novel Atonement C200=D deals #ith other historical events of that time; the 6ritish retreat to Cand fromD Dun$ir$ in =?:0, and the subse"uent over#helming numbers of #ounded arriving in English hospitals 5cE#an dre# on t#o ma(or sources; the tales told by his father, a former soldier #ho made the (ourney from

? #artime /rance to hospital bed in 0iverpoolA and the #ritten memoir of novelist and #artime nurse 0ucilla -ndre#s, $o Time for %omance C=?>>D 'hen -ndre#s died in 200H, an article by 7ulia 0angdon in the !ail on &unday accused 5cE#an of profiting from the memoir #ithout due tribute to its author Plagiarism could not be explicitly alleged, as 5cE#an had ac$no#ledged the source at the end of his novel ,o#ever, it #as implied in the title of the !ail2s piece, *8evealed; ho# 6oo$er pri4e #riter copied #or$ of the "ueen of hospital romance+, and in a *spot the difference+ section sho#ing similar extracts from the t#o #or$s -fter several notable #riters rallied to 5cE#an2s cause, pointing out that all historical novels rely on factual material, 0angdon retreated, saying that she had only accused 5cE#an of lac$ing *simple courtesy and professional eti"uette+ C:8D !he affair soon subsided ,o#ever, the events #ere revisited in Critical 'uarterly the follo#ing summer %n his /ore#ord to *!he 5cE#an Dossier+, 1olin 5c1abe reflected on the implications of such accusations of plagiarism; 5cE#an2s novel raises the "uestion of the #riter2s relation to Jborro#ed #ords2 in a particularly acute fashion because it is explicitly a historical novel set before the #riter #as born 6orro#ing here does not simply involve the inevitable traces left by others2 #riting and speech, but the necessity for the #riter to anchor his or her narrative in the specificities of an age un$no#n at first hand C92D 'hile this *necessity+ is arguable, it seems appropriate in this case, given 5cE#an2s o#n response to 0angdon2s initial article 'riting in The (uardian Cand reprinted in Critical 'uarterlyD, 5cE#an explains that -ndre#s2 memoir is, to his $no#ledge, the only #ritten eye.#itness account available on the sub(ect of nurses2 experience during the influx of Dun$ir$ veterans in =?:0 ,e argues that such events *demand the strictest factual accuracy 'hen all these elements are H0 years in the past, the "uest for truth becomes all the more difficult and important+ C"td in 5c1abe :>.8D 6eyond veracity, ho#ever, 5cE#an also ma$es assertions about the ethical responsibility of #riting and the nature of this *truth+; %t is an eerie, intrusive matter, inserting imaginary characters into actual historical events - certain freedom is suddenly compromisedA as one crosses and re.crosses the lines bet#een fantasy and the historical record, one feels a #eighty obligation to strict accuracy %n #riting about #artime especially, it

=0 seems li$e a form of respect for the suffering of a generation #renched from their ordinary lives to be conscripted into a nightmare !he #riter of a historical novel may resent his dependence on the #ritten record, on memoirs and eye#itness accounts, in other #ords on other #riters, but there is no escape; Dun$ir$ or a #artime hospital can be novelistically realised, but they cannot be re.invented C:H.>D !his idea of an inherent constraint to the process of #riting is echoed by the novelist Sarah 'aters 'aters compares 5cE#an2s situation to her o#n experience #riting The $ight )atch C200HD, #hich is set in 0ondon during 'orld 'ar %% bombing, arguing that *there is a natural limit to the #ays in #hich one can describe, say, an air raid, or driving an ambulance through the 6lit4, or "ueuing for rationed food+ C"td in 5c1abe <8D 'aters ac$no#ledges that such scruples did not arise #hen #riting her other novels, #hich are set in the nineteenth century Similarly, 5cE#an does not hesitate to create the thoughts of a thirteen.year.old girl in pre.#ar England K the sub(ect of the first part of Atonement . though such experience is (ust as far from his o#n as that of a soldier or nurse Lf course, a large part of this distinction is about reverence for factsA Dun$ir$ and the 6lit4 are real historical events, and therefore, 5cE#an #rites, *cannot be re.invented+ 6ut the vie#s of 5cE#an and 'aters also reveal an underlying ethics of representation in #hich events involving traumatic experiences carry a particular moral #eight 5cE#an2s desire to sho# *respect for the suffering of a generation+ means that he refuses to try to imagine #hat it #as li$e, instead only consenting to #rite about such events if he has eye.#itness accounts on #hich to dra# -nother important example is Pat 6ar$er2s %egeneration Trilogy C=??=.<D, #hich similarly dra#s on the author2s careful research of first.hand testimonial accounts in its fictionali4ation of shell shoc$ victims in 'orld 'ar % !his dimension of personal ethics is an important component of the problem of ,olocaust representation !he debate over #hether such representation is desirable, permissible, or even possible is usually traced bac$ to !heodor -dorno2s pronouncement in =?<= that *!o #rite poetry after -usch#it4 is barbaric+ C*1ultural 1riticism+ 9:D !hough -dorno later modified his stance, at least as far as survivor. poets #ere concerned, conceding that *Perennial suffering has as much right to expression as a tortured man has to scream+ C*5editations+ 9H2D, the suspicion of art in the face of the ,olocaust has continued 3eorge Steiner, for example, #rote in =?HH

== that the only response to the dilemma should be a conscious, deliberate silence; *%t is better for the poet to mutilate his o#n tongue than to dignify the inhuman either #ith his gift or his uncaring+ C*Silence+ >9D Lf course, such pronouncements have had little effect on the amount of ,olocaust literature produced 0a#rence 0anger2s The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination C=?><D brought together and illuminated the many novels on the sub(ect that had by then appeared, convincingly arguing for the crucial role of fiction in ma$ing the ,olocaust comprehensible for the human imagination /or 0anger, the novel form2s inherent blend of fact and fantasy, #hat he calls its *irrealism+ C:<D, is exactly appropriate for depicting events that are often scarcely believable !his argument is in direct opposition to the idea that the ,olocaust is intrinsically resistant to fictional representation, a vie# put for#ard by, for example, the philosopher 6erel 0ang in Act and Idea in the $azi (enocide C=??0D /or 0ang, the problem stems from the perceived nature of the events; Ln the account given, imaginative representation #ould personali4e even events that are impersonal and corporateA it #ould dehistorici4e and generali4e events that occur specifically and contingently -nd the unavoidable dissonance here is evident F G #here impersonality and abstractness are essential features of the sub(ect, as in the sub(ect of the Ba4i genocide, then a literary focus on individuation and agency Jcontradicts2 the sub(ect itself F G C=::.<D 0ang2s argument rests on a distinction bet#een *figurative+ and *historical+ discourse ,e says that the #riter of figurative discourse, in addition to emphasising the individual agency of characters, inevitably *obtrudes+ C=:<D into the narrative, giving his or her o#n perspective, thereby implying that alternative perspectives are also possible !his is unacceptable to 0ang because in the case of the ,olocaust there must be a limit to the possible range of vie#points; !he figurative assertion of alternative possibilities, in other #ords, suggests a denial of limitation; no possibilities are excluded -nd although for some literary sub(ects openness of this sort may be #arranted or even desirable, for others it represents a falsification, morally and conceptually C=:<.H, emphasis in originalD !his focus on the ethical limits of representation Creminiscent of Sarah 'aters2 assertion that *there is a natural limit to the #ays one can describe+D is connected to the vie# that

=2 the ,olocaust is itself a *limit event+, that is, one that stretches or even exceeds our ability to understand or $no# it !his argument in turn stems from the assertion that the ,olocaust #as unprecedented, singular, and uni"ue !he historian Eberhard 7Mc$el has succinctly summari4ed #hy this should be so; !he Ba4i extermination of the 7e#s #as uni"ue because never before had a state, under the responsible authority of its leader, decided and announced that a specific group of human beings, including the old, the #omen, the children, and the infants, #ould be $illed to the very last one, and implemented this decision #ith all the means at its disposal CNtd in 0a1apra, *8epresenting+ ==2=D -nother historian, Saul /riedlMnder, agrees, calling the ,olocaust an *event at the limits+ #hose nature #as *#ilful, systematic, industrially organised+ C*%ntroduction+ 9D !hese references to industrial and bureaucratic implementation also suggest that the ,olocaust #as a product of modernity, an argument made explicit by Oygmunt 6auman in =?8? 6auman insisted that the ,olocaust #as not simply a *e#ish ro+lem, and not an event in *e#ish history alone The Holocaust #as +orn and e,ecuted in our modern rational society, at the high stage of our civilization and at the ea- of human cultural achievement, and for this reason it is a ro+lem of that society, civilization and culture Cx, emphasis in originalD 3oing beyond such socio.historic analyses, others have argued that the ,olocaust2s uni"ueness challenges or reveals the very nature of humanity ,annah -rendt2s description of the *banality of evil+ in her report on the Eichmann trial is an early example 5ore recently, 7Prgen ,abermas has articulated the sense that the human condition has been altered by -usch#it4; Something happened there that no one could previously have thought even possible %t touched a deep layer of solidarity among all #ho have a human face Until then . in spite of all the "uasi.natural brutalities of #orld history . #e had simply ta$en the integrity of this deep layer for granted -t that point a bond of naivetQ #as torn to shreds . a naivetQ from #hich un"uestioned traditions dre# their authority, a naivetQ that as such had nourished historical continuities -usch#it4 altered the conditions for the continuation of historical life contexts . and not only in 3ermany C2<=.2D

0a1apra gives the original source as Eberhard 7Mc$el, *Die elende Praxis der Untersteller+ in .ie /eit, =2 Sept =?8H

=9 Such ideas of ontological rupture and unprecedented uni"ueness have strong implications for the epistemology of representation %n the postmodern philosophy of 7ean./ranRois 0yotard, particularly Heidegger and 0the 1e#s2 C=??0D, the ,olocaust becomes that #hich is ineffable, inexpressible, and hence beyond representation in the normal understanding of the term -nn Parry sums up 0yotard2s vie#, in #hich the ,olocaust ta$es on the *immemorial+ status of the originary repressed; *it is a silence, lost to representation 'riting beyond the Shoah is Joutside taste2 F ethics have been negated, so purgation and rene#al are impossible F is struggle #ith and bear #itness to the unsayable+ C:20D 3illian 8ose criticises this approach as leading to *,olocaust piety+ C:9D, #hich she argues represents a collusion #ith /ascism #here there should instead be an *ac$no#ledgement of FourG mutual implication+ C:=D 8ose #rites; !o argue for silence, prayer, the banishment e"ually of poetry and $no#ledge, in short, the #itness of Jineffability2, that is, non.representability, is to mystify something #e dare not understand, because #e fear that it may be all too understandable, all too continuous #ith #hat #e are K human, all too human C:9, emphasis in originalD !he conflict bet#een the vie#s of such thin$ers as 0yotard and 8ose has led to various binary theories of ,olocaust representation being put for#ard /or example, 5ichael 8othberg, in Traumatic %ealism C2000D, posits an opposition bet#een *realist+ and *antirealist+ approaches; 6y realist % mean both an epistemological claim that the ,olocaust is $no#able and a representational claim that this $no#ledge can be translated into a familiar mimetic universe F G 6y antirealist % mean both a claim that the ,olocaust is not $no#able or #ould be $no#able only under radically ne# regimes of $no#ledge and that it cannot be captured in traditional representational schemata C9.:D -lan 5int4, in an article published in the same year, proposes an opposition bet#een *exceptionalist+ and *constructivist+ vie#s !he exceptionalist standpoint is *rooted in a conviction of the ,olocaust as a radical rupture in human history that goes #ell beyond notions of uni"ueness+ C:0=D, #hile the constructivists stress *the cultural lens through #hich the ,olocaust is perceived+ C:02D !his idea that some commentators are G reason and G -ll art can do

=: more *constructive+ than others ta$es even more polemical form in Sidra DeSoven E4rahi2s analysis, in =??H, of the stultifying effect of resistance to interpretation and representation E4rahi uses the terms *absolutist+ and *relativist+, noting that in #ritings about the ,olocaust, *,istory is appropriated either as a set of documents fro4en in time and providing the locus that articulates the Event itself or yielding to ongoing interpretative and narrative enterprises+ 'hile the absolutist camp sets limits to representation, the relativists2 challenges to these restrictions *arise from the principle of desire and change as a counterforce to the rituals and myths that free4e memory+ C=9<D !hus E4rahi implies t#o things; firstly, that any limits, such as to #hat can or cannot be said about the experiences of victims, are problematic insofar as they tend to#ards reinforcing a fro4en stasis that obstructs the process of mourningA and secondly, that #riting should be creatively experimental to the extent that it achieves change, progress and movement, in defiance of the *collective enforcement of propriety over the past+ C=9HD that the absolutists #ould impose !hus the debate becomes one bet#een movement and resistance, freedom and constriction /iction, in this context, has dra#n criticism for its tendency to encourage free movement across boundaries %n "et#een )itness and Testimony C200=D, 5ichael 6ernard.Donals and 8ichard 3le(4er argue that fictional narrative tends to#ards redemption, #hether through identification #ith the protagonists of the story or by gaining $no#ledge of the event being narrated /or these authors, neither of these outcomes is possible in the case of the ,olocaust, #hich *exceeds our ability to identify #ith or come to $no# FitG+ CixD %n similar vein, 8obert Eaglestone, in The Holocaust and the Postmodern C200:D, places the problem of identification at the centre of the debate, arguing that *the reading that fiction re"uires too often demands the sort of process of identification that Jconsumes2 the events+ C=92D % deal #ith Eaglestone2s arguments in detail in 1hapter 2 of the present study /or no# it #ill suffice to dra# attention to the #ay 6ernard.Donals, 3le(4er and Eaglestone focus on ideas of resistance, #hether of #riters to the sub(ect, or of the ,olocaust to attempts to fictionali4e it !he problem #ith this approach is that it is in one sense a lost cause 1ountless examples of ,olocaust narratives already exist, and for better or #orse, they influence our vie# of the event -s 7ames E Eoung argued as long ago as =?88, *'hat is remembered of the ,olocaust depends on ho# it is remembered, and

=< ho# events are remembered depends in turn on the texts no# giving them form+ C=D !hus, for Eoung, boo$s being #ritten no# represent #hatever meaning the ,olocaust hasA there is no underlying ob(ective truth for #hich to search, no locus of absolute Event to be discovered S#eeping aside E4rahi2s *absolutists+, this approach frees narrative fiction from its chains of attachment to the historical past %f, as Eoung implies, the text gives form to the memory Cliterally creates itD, then any *limits+ to its scope can only be textual, not epistemological %n this model, #hat 6erel 0ang sa# as the inherent problem of *falsification+ through the suggestion of alternative perspectives is removed, and the #riter is at liberty to explore the theme of the ,olocaust in *limitless+ creative #ays 'hile Eoung does not explicitly advocate this, it is the logical result of his important insight that representation and reality exist not in an oppositional or hierarchical relationship but a symbiotic one -nother argument in support of alternative perspectives is put for#ard by 5ichael -ndrQ 6ernstein in Foregone Conclusions: Against A ocaly tic History C=??:D 6ernstein is motivated by a desire to respect the particular moral universe inhabited by ,olocaust victims, and avoid imposing retrospective (udgement upon them ,e critici4es a narrative move he labels *bac$shado#ing+, #hich *is a $ind of retroactive foreshado#ing, in #hich the shared $no#ledge of the outcome of a series of events by a narrator and listener is used to (udge the participants in those events as though they too should have -no#n #hat #as to come+ C=H, emphasis in originalD 6ernstein gives the example of -haron -ppelfeld2s novel "adenheim 3454 C=?80D, in #hich, 6ernstein argues, the 7e#ish characters appear to be (udged for not anticipating their fate %n contrast, 6ernstein advocates *sideshado#ing+, a narrative strategy #hich emphasi4es the individual contingencies and motivations behind each act or decision, rather than submission to a pre.determined teleology Sideshado#ing, then, consists of *gesturing to the side, to a present dense #ith multiple, and mutually exclusive, possibilities for #hat is to come+ C=D 6ernstein2s argument is a practical recommendation for ho# the ,olocaust may be represented -nother is implied by Eric Santner2s #arning against *narrative fetishism+, #hich is *the construction and deployment of a narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge the traces of the trauma or loss that called the narrative into being in the first place+ C=::D Santner2s examples include the diverting

=H love stories in the 3erman television series Heimat, and the uplifting ending of &chindler6s List C=??9D - solution to this problem is proposed by 3illian 8ose, #ho argues that the desired effect on an audience should not be the *sentimental tears+ provo$ed by Spielberg2s film, but *the dry eyes of a deep grief+ C<:D !his is to be achieved by combining the *fascism of representation+ #ith the *representation of /ascism+ C:=D %n another approach, Saul /riedlMnder has attempted to define #hat might constitute *ade"uacy+ in ,olocaust representation 1iting %da /in$2s short stories and 1laude 0an4mann2s film &hoah C=?8<D, /riedlMnder finds a *common denominator+, #hich is the exclusion of straight, documentary realism, but the use of some sort of allusive or distanced realism 8eality is there, in its star$ness, but perceived through a filter; that of memory Cdistance in timeD, that of spatial displacement, that of some sort of narrative margin #hich leaves the unsayable unsaid C*%ntroduction+ =>, emphasis in originalD % return to 8ose and /riedlMnder2s arguments in 1hapter : of the present study, #here % apply them to the #or$ of ' 3 Sebald 5ean#hile, yet another example of a recommendation for ,olocaust representation comes from 3eoffrey ,artman; -rt can and does move a#ay from historical reference by a characteristic distancing 5oreover, even so estranging an event as the Shoah may have to be estranged again, through art, insofar as its symbols become trite and ritualistic rather than realising C*%ntroduction+ =?D !his process of *distancing+ and *estrangement+ #ill necessarily re"uire experiment and ris$, and in the first boo$.length study of recent novels on the sub(ect, Holocaust Fiction C2000D, Sue @ice argues forcefully in favour of such an approach to narrative Discussing the reasons for the *scandalFi4edG+ C2D critical reception to much ,olocaust fiction, @ice argues that revie#ers and scholars often mista$enly apply the rules of testimony or memoir to the genre Lne of these supposed rules is that the biography of the author must stand up to scrutinyA the author must have *authority+ -nother is that one only has the *right+ to approach the sub(ect if one is 7e#ish or related to a survivor @ice says that these rules of testimony should not be applied to fiction, arguing that *it is important to understand the vie# #hich values testimony over all fictional genres for

=> #hat it is K an estimate based on non.literary criteria, and it is precisely those criteria #ith #hich % am concerned here+ C>D !his frees @ice to consider various novels in terms of their literary merit, using the tools of 6a$htinian poetics She critici4es 5ichaels2 Fugitive Pieces for *trying to #ring aesthetic and meaningful comfort from an event #hich offers no redemption of any $ind+ C?D %nstead @ice favours novels #hich *push to FextremesG their novelistic constituents+ C8D ,olocaust fiction, for @ice, should be *unaccommodating+ to the reader, producing an effect of *disruption and unease+ C=H=D She goes further by giving fiction a licence to ta$e any $ind of ris$; *6y contrast to the poetic option, % argue that crude narration, irony, blac$ humour, appropriation, sensationalism, even characters #ho mouth antisemitic slogans, do not seem as suspect+ C?D !he point for @ice is to avoid soothing the reader #ith certain $inds of style and instead use experimentation to provo$e feelings of unsettlement that in turn force the reader to engage more directly #ith the sub(ect.matter @ice2s careful separation of the *genres+ of testimony and fiction echoes a concern across much critical #riting about the ,olocaust /or example, 3illian 6anner, in Holocaust Literature: &chulz, Levi, & iegelman and the !emory of the 7ffence C2000D, addresses the problem as it is raised by the three authors in her title She ac$no#ledges that Schul42s fictions contain elements of autobiography, and that 0evi and Spiegelman2s autobiographical narratives contain aspects of fiction Despite the evidence of this cross.pollination, 6anner insists that boundaries must be maintained, and asserts that this may be achieved by assessing CauthorialD *intention+; -s good postmodernists, #e all recogni4e the fictionali4ing and shaping that ta$e place in any Jtrue2 story and #ould assert that no telling is free of the editing and narrating that also goes to ma$e fiction %n this vie# Schul42s stories are li$ely to be autobiographical to the extent that 0evi2s memoir is fictional % #ould argue that #hilst these ideas are not only persuasive but also beneficial in approaches to most other literature, they do present dangers #hen applied to the literature of the ,olocaust !he tendency to relativism #hich counts &o hie8s Choice and If This is a !an as e"ually Jfictitious2 or Jtrue2 does a disservice in the case of this particular genre F G F G #hen reading the literature of the ,olocaust, the distinctions bet#een those texts #hich are intended as fictions and those #hich are not, need to be recogni4ed and maintained C<D !he problem #ith this argument is that it relies on a strict *distinction+ bet#een fiction and non.fiction that, as 6anner ac$no#ledges, is not borne out in narrative practice

=8 !he t#in assertions that texts do cross the divide and that the barrier must be maintained cannot be simultaneously sustained 5oreover, #hether a text is labelled fiction or non. fiction results not (ust from the author2s stated *intention+ C#hich may or may not be trust#orthy or relevantD but also from the editorial and mar$eting decisions of publishers Beither of these criteria are particularly satisfactory, particularly #hen addressing such an urgent "uestion as the ethics of ,olocaust narrative %nstead, it may be more productive to ac$no#ledge that the supposed boundaries bet#een testimony and fiction, historical and figurative discourse, referentiality and imaginative construction, CautoDbiography and invention, have been routinely breached throughout the history of prose narrative %n this study, % #ish to avoid these artificial boundaries and reductive opposites to analyse instead a range of texts for the ethical positions revealed by their various narrative strategies in approaching the ,olocaust !hese positions may be most effectively elucidated, in my vie#, by evaluating the role of the narrator in each text 'il$omirs$i2s J%2 not only claims to remember a past that is not his, but also sets out to deceive the reader as to its function #ithin the text 5ichaels2 narrators promote over.identification #ith victims and alignment of those born after #ith genuine #itnesses Sebald, in contrast, constructs #hat % call an *empathic narrative persona+ in order to negotiate such ethical problems, #hile /oer2s approach includes a *dual persona+ #hose function is to foreground the irrecoverable epistemological and generational distance bet#een past and present 6y thus examining the relationships bet#een author, narrator and text, % argue that the dead ends of authority and authenticity, #hich stem from false oppositions based on genre and #hich result in either condemnation or acceptance into a *canon+ of ,olocaust literature, may be transcended %ndeed, #riters li$e Sebald and /oer self.reflexively foreground their engagement #ith these problems, suggesting that the concerns of those #ho disapprove of certain forms of ,olocaust representation need not remain outside the narrative but may be usefully integrated #ithin the text itself %n doing so they also ans#er the ethical concern about crossing the boundary bet#een testimony and fiction by foregrounding their use of elements from both genres -long #ith @ice and 6anner2s interventions, there have been several other significant contributions to the critical debate on contemporary ,olocaust literature in the last decade or so Bicola Sing2s !emory, $arrative, Identity: %emem+ering the &elf C=???D considers both fictional and biographical narratives in terms of the common #ay they

=? reveal the construction of identity !a$ing examples from *#omen2s #riting+ and popular fiction as #ell as ,olocaust narratives, Sing2s thesis is that identity is constructed through the *%+.narrator2s dialogue bet#een present narration and past experience, a process of *re.membering+ or putting bac$ together the t#o parts of the self inhabiting these realms !his approach highlights the difference bet#een the narrating *%+ and the sub(ect of that narration, #hich are too often ta$en to be identical %t also dra#s on the interest in memory and trauma that emerged in the =??0s, a field #hich underlies 'hitehead2s Trauma Fiction C200:D -mong 'hitehead2s examples are several #or$s dealing #ith the ,olocaust; Fragments, Fugitive Pieces, 1aryl Phillips2 The $ature of "lood C=??>D, and selections from Sebald2s oeuvre 'hitehead ma$es an explicit lin$ bet#een *trauma theory+ and contemporary fiction, asserting that each informs the other Specifically, she invo$es 1athy 1aruth2s development of /reud2s $achtr9glich-eit theory into the concept of *belatedness+ to account for instances of nonlinear narrative and the presence of ghosts and haunting in recent fiction Cthe exemplar being !oni 5orrison2s "elovedD 'hitehead also asserts that the *$ey stylistic features+ of trauma fiction, *intertextuality, repetition and a dispersed or fragmented narrative voice+ C8:D, imitate the #or$ings of traumatic memory; *Bovelists have fre"uently found that the impact of trauma can only ade"uately be represented by mimic$ing its forms and symptoms, so that temporality and chronology collapse, and narratives are characteri4ed by repetition and indirection+ C9D /inally, 'hitehead sho#s ho# trauma fiction dra#s on both postmodernism K in its criti"ue of grand narratives, foregrounding of memory, and testing of formal boundaries K and on postcolonialism K for her ne# category2s *concern #ith the recovery of memory and ac$no#ledgement of the denied, the repressed and the forgotten+ C82D !rauma, for 'hitehead, is the dominant mode both of real.#orld experience and literary expression at the turn of the century %n 1hapter = of the present study % challenge some of the tenets of trauma theory that underlie 'hitehead2s thesis, including 1aruthian belatedness -nother thesis dra#ing on trauma theory, this time in order to exclusively address ,olocaust representation, is proposed by Ernst van -lphen in Caught +y History: Holocaust Effects in Contem orary Art, Literature, and Theory C=??>D @an -lphen invo$es the more contentious assertion of 1aruth and others that trauma represents a literal truth about the past, unmediated by the usual distortions of memory ,e #rites;

20 *'hereas a memory is clearly distinct from the event being remembered K it is the memory of something K in the case of trauma, reality and representation are inseparable !here is no distinction; the representation is the event+ C9HD 1ombining this #ith speech.act theory, van -lphen advances the argument that certain imaginative art#or$s achieve *,olocaust effects+ or performative *reenactments+ #hich enable the audience to *$eep in touch+ #ith the past in an unmediated manner !his act is a resentation rather than representation *'hen % call something a ,olocaust effect, % mean to say that #e are not confronted #ith a representation of the ,olocaust, but that #e, as vie#ers or readers, experience directly a certain aspect of the ,olocaust or of Ba4ism, of that #hich led to the ,olocaust+ C=0D !he t#in problems highlighted by this approach K a reliance on contested ideas about traumatic memory, and a tendency to over.identify #ith the victims of the past K are explored in detail in the first t#o chapters of the present study 8othberg2s Traumatic %ealism provides a useful nuance to this debate !he ne# category proposed by his title is described as not an *act of passive mimesis+, but rather an *attempt to produce the traumatic event as an ob(ect of $no#ledge and to program and thus transform its readers so that they are forced to ac$no#ledge their relationship to posttraumatic culture+ C=09D !hus 8othberg seems to argue that traumatic realism *produceFsG+ the event in the present rather than depicting it in the past, in an apparent echo of van -lphen2s ideas of performative reenactment Eet 8othberg2s only reference to van -lphen2s boo$ is to critici4e its *vague and indefensible assertions about the relationship of art to historical events+ C2>>D, and to argue that *the notion that J#e2 can reexperience the ,olocaust is absurd and dangerous+ C2>8D !his is because 8othberg2s concern is more pedagogic than personal 'hile van -lphen2s impetus is his o#n childhood memory of stifled debate in post.#ar ,olland, 8othberg appears motivated by a desire to *program+ readers #ith $no#ledge !his didactic impulse leads to an attempt to corral the various movements of literary history into a productive combination %n 8othberg2s tripartite schema, ,olocaust literature responds to *a demand for documentation, a demand for reflection on the formal limits of representation, and a demand for the ris$y public circulation of discourses on the events+ C>D !hese three demands correspond in turn to realism C*strategies for referring to and documenting the #orld+D, modernism C#hich *"uestions its ability to document history transparently+D and postmodernism C#hich *responds to the economic and

2= political conditions of its emergence and public circulation+D C?D *!raumatic realism+, then, combines all three of these elements in variable amounts in order to respond to the particular difficulties of ,olocaust representation Examples given by 8othberg include #or$s by 8uth Sluger, -rt Spiegelman, and Philip 8oth !hese monographs by @ice, 6anner, Sing, van -lphen and 8othberg K not to mention less theoretical examples such as 1hristopher 6igsby2s %emem+ering and Imagining the Holocaust C200HD and Daniel 8 Sch#ar42s Imagining the Holocaust C=???D K have little difficulty locating examples of *,olocaust literature+ on #hich to comment Eet their examples almost exclusively originate from outside the location of the original event, and more pointedly, from the dispersed victim population rather than the perpetrator collective %n contrast, Ernestine Schlant2s The Language of &ilence: )est (erman Literature and the Holocaust C=???D is a comprehensive chronological survey of post. #ar non.7e#ish 3erman authors #ho address the ,olocaust, and as her title implies, Schlant finds their output less than helpful Dra#ing on /reud2s theories of melancholy and mourning, Schlant argues that there is a *silence+ in her ob(ects of study #hich results from an authorial strategy Cperhaps unconsciousD of avoidance and omission 6ecause of this silence there has yet to be a proper *#or$ing through+ by the 3erman people !he nature of the tas$ Schlant feels is necessary is revealed in her analysis of ' 3 Sebald, #hom she considers to have bro$en the pattern %n The Emigrants, Schlant argues, Sebald *begins to mourn the destruction of 7e#s in 3ermany K a uni"ue achievement in 3erman literature K and gives voice to the culture and the lives that #ere destroyed ,ere, the language of silence is bro$en and a long.delayed melancholy emerges+ C=?D Schlant2s analysis reveals the importance attached to the #ay those living many decades later should *remember+ the ,olocaust and its victims Some have argued that this temporal and generational distance has turned out to be helpful for understanding Psychotherapist Dori 0aub has posited a *historical gap+ C*Event+ 8:D a$in to the latency experienced by some sufferers of post.traumatic stress disorder, in #hich only no# can events previously met #ith silence be meaningfully apprehended Similarly, Saul /riedlMnder offers a /reudian explanation;

22 !he *generation of the grandchildren+, mainly among Europeans C3ermans in particularD but among 7e#s as #ell, has sufficient distance from the events in terms of both the sheer passage of time and the lac$ of personal involvement to be able to confront the full impact of the past !hus, the expansion of memory of the Shoah could be interpreted as the gradual lifting, induced by the passage of time, of collective repression C*,istory+ 2>:D /riedlMnder2s argument brings together the t#in concerns of the t#entieth century2s obsession #ith memory; the individual and the collective !heories of the individual psyche stem not (ust from /reudian psychoanalysis but also from the philosophy of ,enri 6ergson and the literary innovations of 5arcel Proust 5ean#hile, models of *collective memory+ have been developed since 5aurice ,alb#achs2 mid.century interventions by historians such as Pierre Bora and cultural critics li$e -ndreas ,uyssen Cboth of #hom are dealt #ith in 1hapter 9 of the present studyD ,o#ever, there are several other dimensions to contemporary interest in memory %n ans#er to the "uestion of #hy people choose to remember a past in #hich they did not ta$e part, several ans#ers present themselves 7e#ish tradition and religious practice has al#ays emphasi4ed both remembering the experience of one2s ancestors and understanding the present as part of a continuum #ith the past Ca tendency fondly satiri4ed by /oer in Everything is Illuminated, as % discuss in 1hapter <D %n the #ider community, *,olocaust remembrance+ is understood as an exhortation to *never forget+, #hich in turn may help society avoid pre(udice, persecution and genocide in the future !his latter pro(ect includes the preservation of survivor testimony by such pro(ects as the /ortunoff -rchive and the Shoah /oundation, and collective acts of remembrance such as *,olocaust 5emorial Day+ and the visiting of ,olocaust museums as part of 'estern tourism -nother important dimension of the contemporary negotiation #ith memory is its relation to history 8ichard !erdiman, in Present Past: !odernity and the !emory Crisis C=??9D, argues that the recent obsession #ith memory is in effect a product of the historical process of modernity Else#here memory has been embraced as a model for challenging history %n an article published in 200:, 5eredith 1riglington succinctly describes this phenomenon; 5emory2s relative or chronotopic structure provides a critical model for examining representations of the past !he shifting, mediated, and constructed

29 nature of memory challenges more traditional historiographic modes that tend to appear static, transcendent, and naturali4ed 1lose attention to the operation of memory reminds us that all historical $no#ledge is relational, contingent, and *situated+ C,ara#ayDA in other #ords, history is shaped according to our present needs 5oreover, an a#areness that memory is partial, in the double sense of being incomplete and sub(ective, creates slippages and gaps through #hich contesting voices, or even silences, can emerge C=90D !his potential of memory to generate ne# #ays of thin$ing about the past has been a strong influence on contemporary narratives of the ,olocaust %t is one of the paradoxes of ,olocaust representation that those #ho cannot have direct memory of the event nevertheless tend to dra# on it as a central metaphor, symbol, or other generative device for their narratives !his is certainly the case in the examples dealt #ith in the present study, for #hich % #ill no# attempt to define some categorical boundaries 'hile the reductive nature of this must be ac$no#ledged, it may nevertheless help to clarify my overall thesis and provide grounding for the chapters that follo# %n the present study, then, % am considering post.=??0 European and Borth -merican ,olocaust narratives, #ith a fictional element, by non.survivors !his last condition seems to me the most significant 3iven the insoluble difficulties, alluded to above, of separating prose narratives into genres of, for example, *fiction+ and *testimony+, the distinction bet#een survivor.#itnesses and the rest is perhaps the only stable pillar left for critics to hold on to %ndeed, this may explain #hy Fragments, #ith its author2s claim to be a #itness #hen historical documents prove that he cannot possibly have been so, has been considered so important by critics C% s$etch this response to the *'il$omirs$i affair+ in 1hapter 9D 5ean#hile, my decision to exclude survivors from my purvie# is also an inevitable result of privileging contemporary examples, #ith most #itnesses no# having died 5ore importantly, accounts by survivor.#itnesses present their o#n particular problems regarding the boundaries bet#een fact and fiction, or testimony and imagination, that are beyond the scope of the present study !he "uestion of #hether Primo 0evi2s If This Is a !an or Elie 'iesel2s $ight Cboth =?<8D contain fictional elements is very different from the issues raised by the generic hybridity found in boo$s by Sebald and /oer Survivors may or may not fictionali4e their memories, consciously or unconsciously Cand some #ould say inevitablyDA but they nevertheless form a distinct group by dint of having any personal memory on #hich to dra#

2:

%t is for similar reasons that % do not include examples from the burgeoning category of *second generation+ ,olocaust narratives !his important group, examined in detail in Efraim Sicher2s edited collection "rea-ing Crystal: )riting and !emory after Ausch#itz C=??8D, is usually restricted to boo$s by authors #hose parents #ere ,olocaust survivors !hus #hile -nne 5ichaels2 Fugitive Pieces deals #ith this topic, it nevertheless #ould fall out of Sicher2s category by dint of its author2s parentage Else#here, in his %ntroduction to Holocaust $ovelists C200:D, Sicher has set out criteria for this category based on the connection bet#een an author2s biography, psychology and output; !he second generation feels an urgent need to transmit the testimony of the ageing survivors to the next generation, both as carriers of memory and as fighters against ,olocaust denial !he generational transfer of posttraumatic memory has given children of survivors the feeling of being maimed by history before their births, and they have had to come to terms #ith a past of #hich they have no personal memory by imagining it creatively in novels, poetry and plays C*%ntroduction+ xviiD Sicher2s determining factor, *generational transfer of posttraumatic memory,+ reflects a #idespread assumption that #ill be interrogated throughout the present study, especially in 1hapters = and < 'hile such *transfer+ is "uestionable, its acceptance in the critical community leads me to set aside *second generation+ novelists, along #ith survivor. authors, as having different claims to #itness than those #ith no direct connection to the ,olocaust -mong the do4ens of examples of the *second generation+ Sicher cites are -rt Spiegelman, !hane 8osenbaum, 5elvin 7ules 6u$iet and David 3rossman 'hile the first three of these live and #rite in the United States, the presence of 3rossman in the list reveals a crossover bet#een the categories of *second generation+ and *%sraeli novelists+ 2 3rossman2s &ee :nder: Love Cfirst published in ,ebre# in =?8HD is probably the best.$no#n #or$ of fiction that articulates the particular situation of gro#ing up in post#ar %srael #ith ,olocaust survivors for parents %t is also representative of a significant historical shift in %sraeli literature in general, according to
2

%t is of course also possible to distinguish Cas Sicher does in The Holocaust $ovelD bet#een %sraeli #riters and *7e#ish.-merican post.,olocaust novelists+ such as Saul 6ello#

2< the critic 3ilead 5orahg %n an article published in =???, 5orahg analyses the reasons for the avoidance of the topic by %sraeli authors in the first decades after the #ar -lthough a fe# novels appeared at this time, they tended to deal #ith the aftermath rather than tac$le the ghetto or camp 5orahg argues that *it is li$ely that the prolonged absence of the ,olocaust theme from the literature is not a manifestation of a general national amnesia, but rather a specific conse"uence of a cultural code that controlled the uses to #hich ,olocaust references could be put+ C:<?D !his cultural code arose in part from the difficulty of assimilating to a ne# country and the shame or guilt over having survived %t also included the influence of *Oionist discourse+, #hich, 5orahg #rites, did not deny the agony and the horror of the events of the ,olocaust, but it did deny the relevance of these events to the %sraeli experience and the formation of %sraeli identity -nd since %sraeli literature #as intensely preoccupied #ith matters of %sraeli experience and %sraeli identity, the ,olocaust #as largely excluded from its domain %t remained a dar$ and silent bac$drop against #hich a brilliant ne# reality #as being etched !he first t#o generations of %sraeli #riters implicitly denied their affinity #ith the murdered 7e#s of Europe by insisting on an almost absolute difference from them C:<?D !hus, 5orahg explains, the experience of survivor.#itnesses became *sanctified+, and for anyone else to describe such experience #as *an intolerable violation of a sacred taboo+ C:<?D Lnce again the distinction bet#een survivors and the rest is paramount !he taboo #as only bro$en #hen the children of survivors gre# up to become #riters themselves 5orahg #rites that since =?80, novelists have started to recogni4e the importance of the ,olocaust to contemporary %sraeli experience !hey record the psychological damage and explore origins and conse"uences 5orahg cites, along #ith 3rossman, the #riters Eit4ha$ 6en.Ber, Dorit Peleg and %tamar 0evi %n their #or$ he finds a common element of !odorov2s *fantastic+, the (uxtaposition of realist narrative #ith fantastical elements, #hich 5orahg (udges fitting for the theme %t is not only in %srael that non.realist modes of ,olocaust fiction have become increasingly prevalent Daniel 8 Sch#ar4, in Imagining the Holocaust C=???D, distinguishes four categories of #riting on the topic; memoirsA realismA myth, parable and fableA and fantasy ,e argues that myth and fantasy come more to the fore as time passes, and, li$e 5orahg, that such approaches illuminate the theme Efraim Sicher agrees, arguing that *%magination and fantasy need not necessarily impair authenticity+

2H CHolocaust $ovel xiiiD Bevertheless, another strand has evolved that prefers to ground its fiction in fact 7ean./ranRois Steiner2s Tre+lin-a C=?HHD, -natolii Susnetsov2s "a+ii ;ar C=?H>D, !homas Seneally2s &chindler6s Ar- C=?82D and -lexander 8amati2s And The <iolins &to ed Playing C=?8<D all purport to #eave documented fact into narrative fiction Lthers, li$e 7ohn ,ersey2s The )all C=?<0D, imitate the conventions of the diary, adding an effect of verisimilitude ,o#ever, as sho#n by the discussion of %an 5cE#an2s Atonement above, these *historical+, *documentary+ or *factional+ novels necessarily generate controversy !he choices they ma$e in their use of historical materials are al#ays open to "uestion, and their ethical stance in choosing to fictionali4e real people and events is li$e#ise inherently contestable !he final category typically offered by commentators on ,olocaust literature is that of the postmodern 'e have already seen that critics li$e 'hitehead and 8othberg consider this to be a vital component of contemporary literatures of trauma Sicher argues that #hat he calls *postmodernist J,olocaust fictions2+ are *not concerned #ith historical descriptions of Ba4i genocide, but #ith #hat it can suggest about the postmodern aftermath, #hen delusions of liberal humanism have been shattered+ CHolocaust $ovel =><D -s such they may represent a response to or echo of the postmodern vie# of the ,olocaust itself, as put for#ard by 0yotard and others Bicola Sing notes that postmodernism2s characteristic challenge to traditional vie#s of history and truth ris$s a dangerous level of relativism, yet also provides a productive perspective for addressing the representational challenges inherent in the ,olocaust itself She #rites; Postmodern fiction thus interrogates the memory of the ,olocaust in the late t#entieth and early t#enty.first centuries, and, through its circulation in popular culture, brea$s the *limits of representation+ that critics such as the philosopher 6erel 0ang and the ,olocaust survivor and novelist Elie 'iesel believe are appropriate F G Postmodern techni"ues may impart a sense of the *unrepresentable+ more effectively than realismA postmodern fiction *defamiliari4es+ the over.familiar and often demonstrates ho# the ,olocaust has become commodified or turned into spectacle F G %n imagining a range of responses, from denial at one extreme to continued remembrance at the other, postmodern fiction forms an intervention into the debate over ho#, if at all, the ,olocaust may be represented C*-ppendix+ 9?9.:D

2> Sicher and Sing both cite around a do4en examples of *postmodernist ,olocaust fiction+ Some of those mentioned are Don De0illo2s satire )hite $oise C=?8:D, in #hich the history of Ba4ism appears as (ust another commodity in a #orld of simulacraA 5artin -mis2s Time6s Arro# C=??=D, #here time and history are narrated in reverseA Emily Prager2s allegorical Eve6s Tattoo C=??2D, #hich satiri4es the modern culture of memoriali4ation Cand #hich % discuss in 1hapter 2 of the present studyDA 1hristopher ,ope2s &erenity House C=??2D, #hich dra#s parallels bet#een surveillance and tourism in contemporary 'estern *civili4ed+ society and the recent Ba4i pastA 8obert ,arris2s counterfactual Fatherland C=??2D, set in a =?H0s 3ermany #here ,itler has survived the #ar and the disappearance of the 7e#s has gone unnoticedA and ' 3 Sebald2s Austerlitz C200=D, #hich explores the legacy of the ,olocaust through the eyes of a =indertrans ort survivor C#hich % analy4e in detail in 1hapter :D Sicher also includes 5ichaels2 Fugitive Pieces in his list, and one #ould expect /oer2s Everything is Illuminated to be included in future surveys, particularly for its parody of ,olocaust tourism !his suggests that the #or$s % have chosen for the present study are all in some sense *postmodern+, raising the "uestion of #hether % #ill be interrogating them in that light 'hile the lens of postmodernist thought has indeed been a productive tool for understanding these texts, the present study #ill have a different focus 5y chief emphasis is on the relationship bet#een the #riter and text in the present and the events and victims of the past, and the ethical and epistemological problems this raises % am, therefore, interested in post.=??0 non.survivor ,olocaust narratives from the 'est for the narrative strategies they employ to foreground their engagement #ith these issues, rather than the correlation bet#een these strategies and the *postmodern condition+ as such 'hile recent prose narratives may or may not employ postmodern techni"ues, #hat they have in common is a focus on the ethical problems of #riting and remembering the ,olocaust from their standpoint of historical and generational distance, #hile revealing their desire for connection #ith the past %an 5cE#an2s "lac- .ogs C=??2D, for example, is a metafictional exploration of ho# evil in the past is remembered in the present %ts present.day narrator, 7eremy, underta$es to #rite a memoir of his mother.in.la#, 7une !remaine 7eremy2s first. person narrative about this pro(ect alternates #ith third.person episodes from 7une2s life

28 in post.#ar England and /rance !he central transfiguring event of 7une2s story, saved until the end, is an encounter #ith t#o blac$ dogs during her honeymoon in =?:H Ln a hillside path in /rance, briefly separated from her ne# husband, 7une is faced #ith the hungry, snarling animals /ormerly a strict atheist K she and her husband are communist intellectuals K 7une offers a prayer, has a vision of 3od, and miraculously manages to fend off the dogs #ith a pen$nife 0ater, the local villagers say that the dogs are left behind from the 3erman occupation, and that they had been trained by the 3estapo to attac$ and even rape #omen !he significance of 7une2s encounter is t#ofold; her subse"uent belief in spiritualism drives a #edge bet#een 7une and her arch.materialist husbandA and the blac$ dogs come to signify for her the embodiment of evil that perpetually lur$s belo# the surface of European civili4ation, and #hich may reappear at any time !hus evil is figured as resistant to rational explanation K its effects are felt on more instinctual levels %n a present.day episode, 7eremy visits the former concentration camp at 5a(dane$ #ith a #oman he has (ust met at a conference !heir reaction to the horror they feel is a life.affirming three.day bout of lovema$ing !he connection bet#een present.day 5a(dane$ and the memory of Ba4i atrocities in /rance is thus embodied not in 7une but in 7eremy, #hose narration is revealed as a self. reflexive examination of his o#n motives in investigating the lives of earlier generations %n effect, 5cE#an2s novel ta$es on the form of memoir, metafictionally ac$no#ledging the importance of this genre to ,olocaust literature, #hile also foregrounding the gulf bet#een generations in ho# the past is apprehended - similar concern informs ,elen Darville2s The Hand That &igned the Pa er C=??:D, a novel #hich explores U$rainian collaboration #ith the Ba4is from the perspective of the niece of a man indicted for #ar crimes in present.day -ustralia %n addition to this framing narrative, in #hich /iona Sovalen$o helps her elderly uncle @italy get legal representation Cthough he dies before the trial beginsD, the story of @italy2s youth in =?90s and =?:0s Europe is presented @italy and his family are brutali4ed by Stalin2s imposition of communism, ma$ing them ripe for recruitment to the Ba4i cause @italy (oins the 'affen SS and serves at !reblin$a, $illing daily, #hile his sister Saterina becomes the mistress of a Ba4i officer -fter the #ar the Sovalen$os are reunited at Displaced Persons camps in %taly before being resettled in Surrey, and eventually ta$ing up permanent residentship in -ustralia %n this novel, the psychology of violence and racial hatred is intimately explored, #ith the narrative conveying a po#erful suggestion

2? that social marginali4ation, hunger and ignorance are more important factors than race or ideology *!he brothers Sovalen$o and their comrades K Bi$olai and Shura K did not $ill 7e#s (ust because they #ere poor and U$rainian, and did not $no# any better !hey $illed 7e#s because they believed that they themselves #ere savages+ C>>D ,o#ever, the lac$ of an authoritative narrator Cthe #artime story is focali4ed through several characters, U$rainian and 3ermanD leads to a suspicion of moral e"uivocation /iona as$s @italy if he is sorry for the past, but he gives no clear ans#er /iona herself refuses to condemn the actions of her forebears, instead concentrating on shielding her family from harm !his boo$ thus addresses the difficult "uestion of ho# descendants should approach the actions of a previous generation #hose choices #ere radically unli$e our o#n !he scandal that surrounded its publication only reinforces this theme The Hand That &igned the Pa er #as originally published under the pseudonym *,elen Demiden$o+, the similarity to the narrator2s name *Sovalen$o+ implying that it #as a disguised account of the author2s o#n family history !his impression #as further supported by her behaviour during the boo$2s publicity, in #hich she dressed up in U$rainian clothing !he author #as soon unmas$ed as an -ustralian of -nglo.Saxon extraction, but not before she had #on three literary pri4es %n her chapter on this novel in Holocaust Fiction, @ice lists the elements of the *Demiden$o affair+ as *alleged plagiarism, antisemitism, inauthenticity, appropriation, historical revisionism, FandG mas"uerade+ C=:2D @ice also notes ho# the boo$ led to, or coincided #ith, problems bet#een the 7e#ish and U$rainian communities in -ustralia, and ho# it #as condemned for *humani4ing+ perpetrators 0a1apra is one critic #ho has critici4ed giving a voice to perpetrators, arguing that it creates *an ob(ectionable Cor at best deeply e"uivocalD $ind of discomfort or unease in the reader or vie#er by furthering fascination and a confused sense of identification #ith or involvement in certain figures and their beliefs or actions in a manner that may #ell subvert (udgment and critical response+ C)riting 202.9D 0a1apra cites 3eorge Steiner2s Portage to &an Crist>+al of A? H? C=?8=D, #hich dares to focali4e ,itler, and 6ernhard Schlin$2s .er <orleser C=??<A translated as The %eader, =??>D, one of #hose central characters is a former concentration camp guard Schlin$2s narrative is of particular relevance to the present study %n a 3erman to#n in =?<8, fifteen.year.old 5ichael 6erg has an affair #ith ,anna Schmit4, a tram conductor t#enty.one years his senior -t times she abuses him, and also as$s him to read to her

90 before ma$ing love !heir liaison ends Eight years later, 5ichael, no# a la# student, #itnesses ,anna2s trial for #ar crimes, discovering that she #as a Ba4i guard #ho allo#ed a group of 7e#ish #omen to burn to death in a church 5ichael also belatedly realises that ,anna is illiterate, and that this disability has to an extent shaped her life choices %t emerges that ,anna got 7e#ish #omen to read to her before she sent them to the gas chamber 'as this an act of compassion, or did she send them to the chamber to protect her secret) !he narrative does not ma$e this clear, but ,anna is (udged guilty by the court and sentenced to life imprisonment 0ater, 5ichael begins to send ,anna recordings of himself reading aloud, through #hich she cures her illiteracy by comparing the tapes #ith boo$s in the prison library !he day before her planned release, ,anna commits suicide 5ichael tries to give the money he inherits from ,anna to a 7e#ish survivor, #ho refuses %nstead he donates it to a charity specialising in illiteracy !hus the theme of this novel K 3ermany2s difficulty in coming to terms #ith its past K is figured through the metaphor of illiteracy and its *cure+ 5ichael is innocent yet becomes complicit through his status as *reader+, that is, through his interaction #ith a perpetrator, ,anna, #ho is in turn the embodiment of 5ichael2s Cand 3ermany2sD obscure sense of guilt Schlin$2s narrative subtly addresses important themes including the difficulty of (udgement, the unreliability of evidence, and the problem of assigning guilt and responsibility in an ambiguous moral universe !he same concerns are found in 8achel Seiffert2s The .ar- %oom C200=D, #hose third section in particular is a moving and thought.provo$ing examination of a contemporary 3erman2s obsession #ith #hat his grandfather may have done in the #ar -s such % briefly discuss Seiffert2s novel in 1hapter < in relation to /oer2s Everything is Illuminated, #hose plot similarly hinges on the secrets $ept by the previous generation but one %ndeed, this perspective of attempting to address the past through personal familial connections, #hose lives nevertheless too$ place at an irreducible distance from one2s o#n, both temporally and metaphorically, seems to me a highly useful #ay to generate transgenerational empathy 6efore addressing these texts, and exploring ho# they enact transgenerational empathy in narrative, % turn to the topic of trauma theory, in order to evaluate #hat contribution this field can ma$e to understanding ,olocaust memory in contemporary narratives

9= Chapter # Moving eyond notions of literal truth and the elated su lime: the historical$ political and clinical controversies of trauma !o #hat extent are contemporary ,olocaust narratives analogous to, comparable #ith, or even attributable to *traumatic memory+) 1onversely, ho# useful is this phenomenon as a tool #ith #hich to gain insight into the #or$ings of such narratives) -ccording to Shoshana /elman, *!he t#entieth century can be defined as a century of trauma+ C*uridical =>= n =D 6ut does that mean that trauma should be the only or central concept #ith #hich to analy4e and understand that century and its representations) !his chapter #ill investigate the origins and debates of *trauma theory+ in order to assess its usefulness and relevance to contemporary ,olocaust narratives !he #ord trauma, #hich comes from the 3ree$ for #ound, has been associated #ith physical in(ury since the late seventeenth century %t did not ma$e the transition to study of the mind until t#o hundred years later, #hen, in =88?, *traumatic neurosis+ and *traumatic psychosis+ made their first appearances in print Cattributed to the neurologists ,ermann Lppenheim and 7ean.5artin 1harcot respectivelyD 9 !his transition from the physiological to the psychological sphere is #orth bearing in mind #hen considering the multiple meanings of trauma today !he association brings ideas of violence, laceration and pain, #hich contribute to the po#er the term carries in contemporary discourse !he connection also implies that psychological trauma is caused by an external source /reud #rote in *6eyond the Pleasure Principle+ C=?20D that traumas are *those excitations from outside that are strong enough to brea$ through the protective barrier+ of consciousness CH8D 6ut trauma is also etymologically connected to the 3erman #ord traum, meaning both dream and nightmare, suggesting the role of internal factors in the aetiology of symptoms %ndeed, this problem of inside versus outside is crucial to an understanding of the controversies surrounding trauma 'hether the memory of a trauma refers to a real event, something imagined, or
9

*trauma+ and *traumatic+ 7,ford English .ictionary 2nd ed =?8? *traumatic neurosis+ n A .ictionary of Psychology -ndre# 5 1olman Lxford University Press, =??H 7,ford %eference 7nline Lxford University Press Exeter University -ccessed < -ug 2008 Thttp;II### oxfordreference comIvie#sIEB!8E html)subvie#U5ainVentryUt8> e8<<HW

92 something in bet#een, is the central difficulty informing not (ust medico.legal issues li$e *false memory syndrome+ but also the critical discourse $no#n as *trauma theory+ or *trauma studies+ !he foundation on #hich trauma studies are based is the symptomatology of shoc$ing events Since the nineteenth century, various terms have been offered to describe the symptoms presented by victims of train crashes, trench #arfare, concentration camps, sexual violence, and other horrifying experiences Descriptions such as *fright neurosis+, *#arIcombat neurosis+, *shell shoc$+, *survivor syndrome+ and *concentration camp syndrome+ have all fallen into disuse or become historici4ed Bo#adays, *Post.!raumatic Stress Disorder+ C*P!SD+D has become the ubi"uitous diagnosis for everyone from hostages and rape victims to survivors of car crashes and returnees from #ar 4ones !his gathering together of disparate groups relies on certain assumptions about memory #hich originate in the late nineteenth century but have become more pervasive since =?80 !he most important of these is the theory of dissociation -s 8uth 0eys explains in Trauma: A (enealogy C2000D; Post.traumatic stress disorder is fundamentally a disorder of memory !he idea is that, o#ing to the emotions of terror and surprise caused by certain events, the mind is split or dissociated; it is unable to register the #ound to the psyche because the ordinary mechanisms of a#areness and cognition are destroyed -s a result, the victim is unable to recollect and integrate the hurtful experience in normal consciousnessA instead, she is haunted or possessed by intrusive traumatic memories !he experience of the trauma, fixed or fro4en in time, refuses to be represented as past, but is perpetually reexperienced in a painful, dissociated, traumatic present -ll the symptoms characteristic of P!SD K flashbac$s, nightmares and other reexperiences, emotional numbing, depression, guilt, autonomic arousal, explosive violence or tendency to hypervigilance K are thought to be the result of this fundamental mental dissociation C2D !his psychological diagnostic has proved highly suggestive for a #ide range of discourses, including political science, sociology, philosophy and history !rauma has been used variously as a model #ith #hich to analyse historical process, interpret the testimony of survivor.victims, explain the passing on of experience through generations, and describe the collective memory of societies Unsurprisingly, given this intellectual climate, trauma has also emerged as a ma(or theme for #riters of fiction, memoir and other narrative literature Simultaneously it has been ta$en up by literary critics and thence to the realm of critical theory

99

,o#ever, if the concept of trauma has moved from physiology to psychology, and from psychology to a range of other discourses, its meaning may be slippery and uncertain %ndeed, even #ithin the field of psychology there are fundamental disagreements 6efore coming to these, ho#ever, it may be useful to survey briefly the cultural and clinical history of trauma 1ontroversy in recent times has often centred on the #ay earlier #ritings have been interpreted %n Traumatic Pasts: History, Psychiatry, and Trauma in the !odern Age C200=D, editors 5icale and 0erner put the emergence of psychological trauma firmly in the context of cultural modernity !hey identify four distinct developments of the period =8>0.=?90 that helped shape the concept; the spread of rail#ays, the advent of accident insurance in the nascent #elfare state, the rise of psychological psychiatry, and 'orld 'ar % %ndeed, a good starting point for any history of trauma is the emergence of rail#ay travel in the mid.nineteenth century, and the concurrent phenomenon of the train crash 8alph ,arrington explains ho# rail#ay accidents focussed attention on unusual medical disorders; %n mid. and late.nineteenth.century medical and medico.legal discourse, rail#ay accidents ac"uired a highly significant role as agents of traumatic experience /e# events in ordinary civilian life could e"ual the rail#ay accident for violence, terror, and destruction, and it is unsurprising that this event, the product of industriali4ed modernity, should be seen as capable of bringing about ne#, insidious, highly disruptive forms of in(ury and disorder in the human body Such perceptions found full expression in response to the Jrail#ay spine2 phenomenon, #hich #as characteri4ed by the manifestation of a variety of physical disorders in rail#ay accident victims #ho had apparently suffered no significant organic in(ury C20?D %n the absence of discernible *organic in(ury+, then, doctors and others began to theori4e a connection bet#een the shoc$ suffered by the mind and the physical symptoms presented by the victim ,arrington argues that #hile the study of *rail#ay spine+ in the =8H0s has hitherto been considered the first instance of this *concept of strong emotion producing organic disorders+, in fact *a tradition of surgical en"uiry along those lines existed in the =820s and =890s+ C2=HD Bevertheless, mid.nineteenth century society #as resistant to claims of a causal connection bet#een mind and body -s ,arrington explains, early legal compensation claims brought by rail crash victims

9: tended to rest on a distinction bet#een mere emotional or *moral+ reaction and a *nervous shoc$+ that #as *organic+ in natureA proof of the latter #as necessary for individuals to #in against the rail#ay companies %t #as not until later in the century that neurologists and psychotherapists such as 1harcot, Pierre 7anet, and, later, Sigmund /reud, began to assert the existence of psychological trauma, though the cases they examined #ere so.called *hysterical+ symptoms in #omen -s 0eys notes in her %ntroduction, 1harcot and 7anet theori4ed a *#ounding+ of the mind o#ing to a sudden shoc$, and used *hypnotic catharsis+ to treat the resulting *memory crisis+ or dissociation C:D Else#here, 7anet has been called the *the first to identify dissociation as the crucial psychological mechanism involved in the genesis of a #ide variety of post traumatic symptoms+ Cvan der Sol$, *Pierre 7anet+ 9HHD, and *the first to describe the memory disturbances that accompany traumati4ation+ C9H?D ,o#ever, such theories of the unconscious mind too$ a long time to become mainstream %ndeed, the diagnostic reaction to returning soldiers from 'orld 'ar % echoed the response to *rail#ay spine+, by attributing their symptoms to physical concussion of the spine caused by exploding shells Chence the term *shell shoc$+, coined by 1harles Stanley 5yers in =?=<D !he experience of the trenches caused a huge range of physical symptoms, including *#ithered, trembling arms, paralysed hands, stumbling gaits, tics, tremors and sha$es, as #ell as numbed muteness, palpitations, s#eaty hallucinations and nightmares+ C0eese 9D ,o#ever, as 0eys documents, most people thought sufferers from shell shoc$ to be either malingerers motivated by co#ardice or greed for compensation, or #ea$ types inherently predisposed to brea$ do#n Bevertheless a fe# doctors resurrected the theory of dissociation and offered treatment using hypnosis 3iven the sex of their patients, they #ere forced to ac$no#ledge for the first time that men as #ell as #omen could be affected by so.called *hysterical+ symptoms, or as the ne# term had it, *#ar neurosis+ ,o#ever, due to the lac$ of agreement as to causes, treatment varied #idely depending on the institution to #hich a soldier #as sent, further reinforcing scepticism in the #ider #orld about the reality of the condition C0eys :.<D - fe# for#ard.thin$ing doctors planned to establish special centres of psychoanalytic treatment, but as /reud lamented in his %ntroduction to Psycho@Analysis and the )ar $euroses C=?=?D, the #ar ended before this aim could be reali4ed; *!he opportunity for a thorough investigation of these

9< affections #as thus unluc$ily lost K though, #e must add, the early recurrence of such an opportunity is not a thing to be desired+ C20>D Bevertheless, some doctors attempted a more enlightened approach to shell shoc$ or #ar neurosis during the #ar 0eys cites 'illiam 6ro#n, #ho thought that the symptoms resulted from repressed emotion, that is, the necessity for soldiers to maintain self.control and discipline in the face of emotionally affecting horrors !hus 6ro#n2s treatment involved hypnotic cathartic or *abreaction+, an emotional acting out similar to modern *psychodynamic+ therapy C0eys 8:.<D -nother figure, one #ho has become familiar through Pat 6ar$er2s novel %egeneration C=??=D, is ' , 8 8ivers !his doctor and anthropologist treated, among many others, the #ar poets Siegfried Sassoon and 'ilfred L#en at the 1raigloc$hart ,ydropathic ,ospital in Edinburgh %n an article for The Lancet in =?=8, 8ivers critici4es the common advice given to sufferers of #ar neurosis, that they should manfully repress their memories and suppress all thoughts of #ar !his, he argues, results in the repressed thoughts cro#ding into the mind at bedtime, disrupting sleep %nstead, he notes, if patients allo# their thoughts headroom in the daytime, as and #hen they occur, their condition improves %ndeed, 8ivers, heavily influenced by /reud, goes so far as to say that the symptoms of shell shoc$ are the result not so much of the traumatic events themselves, but of later attempts at their repression; % hope to sho# that many of the most trying and distressing symptoms from #hich the sub(ects of #ar neurosis suffer are not the necessary result of the strains and shoc$s to #hich they have been exposed in #arfare, but are due to the attempt to banish from the mind distressing memories of #arfare or painful affective states #hich have come into being as the result of their #ar experience C=>9D 5ean#hile, the tendency to recommend $eeping a stiff upper lip in the face of trauma, #hich 8ivers identified as unhelpful, led to some extreme forms of treatment 1anadian neurologist 0e#is Eealland, for example, combined verbal chastisement #ith electro. shoc$ therapy /reud, in his -ppendix to *5emorandum on the Electrical !reatment of 'ar Beurotics+ C=?20D, reflected on ho# such methods came to be (ustified ,e noted the logic of the vie# that if #ar neurosis resulted from a mental conflict bet#een, on the one hand, an *unconscious inclination+ C2=2D to #ithdra# from the horrific demands of #ar Cself.preservationD, and on the other, *motives F G such as ambition, self.esteem,

9H patriotism, the habit of obedience and the example of others+ C2=9D, electrical treatment might persuade the soldier that the pain it involved #as #orse than the horror of returning to the front %ndeed, this method met #ith initial success ,o#ever, /reud argues that bac$ at the trenches, those horrors #ould again become uppermost in the patient2s mind and bring bac$ the neurosis /or /reud this proves that *the psychotherapeutic method introduced by me+ C2=<D is a more effective treatment than electric shoc$s %n her chapter on *5edics and the 5ilitary+ in An Intimate History of =illing C2000D, 7oanna 6our$e describes ho# the problem of #ar neurosis resurfaced during 'orld 'ar %% Lnce again thousands of soldiers #ere brea$ing do#n and presenting symptoms that made them unfit for service 5ilitary and financial pressures led to efforts to find effective treatment and learn the lessons of the past -s 6our$e explains; *During the /irst 'orld 'ar, four fifths of men #ho had entered hospital suffering shell shoc$ #ere never able to return to military duty; it #as imperative that such high levels of Jpermanent ineffectives2 #ere reduced+ C2<HD !hus the emphasis #as on getting soldiers bac$ to the front as "uic$ly as possible, using drugs such as insulin and barbiturates, often in con(unction #ith electroshoc$ therapy C2<>.8D 6our$e sho#s ho# army psychiatrists #ere #holly subservient to their military superiors, #ho insisted that #ar aims should ta$e precedence over interest in the individual; *'ithin the armed forces, psychologists found themselves #ith very little independence+ C2H2D !hus attitudes #ere generally unsympathetic 6our$e describes hostility to#ards any *feminine+ or *co#ardly+ behaviour, regardless of the horrors the patient had suffered, #itnessed or perpetrated C2<2.:D !his macho attitude is a possible explanation for the long gap bet#een the #or$ done during 'orld 'ar %% Csuch as -bram Sardiner2s The Traumatic $euroses of )ar F=?:=GD and the official recognition of P!SD Perhaps acceptance could only come in a society #here those #ho brea$ do#n are seen not as #ea$ or co#ardly, but as victims of forces beyond their control !his change in social attitudes is clearly seen in the aftermath of the @ietnam 'ar %n =?>0s United States, groups of psychiatrists and veterans actively campaigned for recognition and compensation, and ran therapy centres and discussion groups Lne of these, *Lperation Lutreach+, commissioned studies on the symptoms of surviving soldiers that outlined #hat #ould eventually be codified and legitimi4ed as

9> *Posttraumatic Stress Disorder+ in the !hird Edition of the -merican Psychiatric -ssociation2s .iagnostic and &tatistical !anual of !ental .isorders C.&!@IIID C=?80D !he most important aspect of this ne# category of disorder #as that it made a traumatic event a necessary causal factor /or the first time it #as officially recogni4ed that the horrific occurrences #itnessed and perpetrated by practitioners of modern #arfare could cause them psychiatric problems, regardless of previous mental state or genetic predisposition 8eactions to this development #ere mixed, as 8ichard 5cBally has pointed out; *'hile many applauded the ne# diagnosis as finally giving a voice to survivors of trauma, others "uestioned its validity, seeing it as a political artifact of the anti#ar movement+ C%emem+ering =D Bevertheless the attitude that sees trauma as something from outside that assails an un#illing victim has become the ne# orthodoxy ,o#ever, a historical overvie# of official reactions to soldiers2 trauma sho#s that the issue of externalIinternal aetiology is more complicated -s #e have seen, the first reaction of military authorities to soldiers brea$ing do#n during 'orld 'ar % #as to assume that a physical cause K the concussions of exploding shells affecting the spine K #ere to blame %n comparison, the history of *3ulf 'ar Syndrome+, as suffered by veterans of the US.led conflict in %ra" in =??0, sho#s ho# far attitudes have changed Symptoms of this condition include fatigue, memory problems and, later, terminal tumours and permanent neurological damage /red 5ilano, in an article published in International &ocial &cience %evie# in 2000, explains ho# the authorities dealt #ith the issue at the time; -t first, the military attributed Fthe soldiers2 symptomsG to *stress+ Post. !raumatic Stress Disorder CP!SDD #as #ell.documented in @ietnam, and its crippling effects are still evident several decades after the #ar %t provided a convenient culprit, one already familiar to the general public C=?D So, the immediate response to the problem #as to focus not on the nature of the #ar itself but on the psychology of soldiers 0ater, in =??H, the -merican Psychiatric -ssociation published a sympathetic volume on the psychiatric fall.out of the #ar, bolstered by a fore#ord by the politician Dic$ 1heney :

Ursano, 8obert 7 and -nn E Bor#ood CedsD Emotional Aftermath of the Persian (ulf )ar: <eterans, Families, Communities, and $ations 'ashington, D1; -merican Psychiatric Press, =??H

98 Eet this response #as also seen as politically motivated evasion -s 5ilano says, *veterans #ere not buying itA they had seen this shell game before+ C=?D ,e explains ho# allegations emerged that the symptoms of 3ulf 'ar Syndrome #ere caused not by the normal stresses of #ar but by the combined effects of multiple vaccinations and anti.nerve gas pills, the spraying of organophosphate pesticides on military tents, and the use of depleted uranium shells !hese allegations are controversial and sub(ect to ongoing debate and investigation, by, for example, the 8esearch -dvisory 1ommittee on 3ulf 'ar @eterans2 %llnesses in the United States Bevertheless, the case illustrates ho# meanings of trauma are both historically contingent and politically motivated !he distance #e have come from denying the psychological nature of shell shoc$ to using P!SD as an excuse for CallegedlyD chemically induced 3ulf 'ar Syndrome suggests that trauma is a changeable political tool rather than a stable and definable phenomenon %n Trauma and %ecovery: From .omestic A+use to Political Terror C=??:D, 7udith 0e#is ,erman argues that the history of trauma has been politically determined from the beginning She contends that the initial study of hysteria by 1harcot and 7anet *gre# out of the republican, anticlerical political movement of the late nineteenth century in /rance+, #hile for both shell shoc$ and P!SD, the *political context #as the collapse of a cult of #ar and the gro#th of an anti.#ar movement+ C?D ,erman2s purpose in this historico.political contextualisation of trauma is to shift the agenda from preoccupation #ith *male+ activities li$e #arfare to#ards *female+ issues such as rape and domestic abuse /or ,erman, the post.=?H0s 'estern feminist movement has revealed a *combat neurosis of the sex #ar+ C28D that should claim our attention and lead to systemati4ed attempts at healing !hat this has not yet occurred is attributed to society2s #ilful turning a#ay from such issues and refusal to face the *truth+; *'hen the truth is finally recogni4ed, survivors can begin their recovery 6ut far too often secrecy prevails F G+ C=D 7enny Ed$ins, in Trauma and the !emory of Politics C2009D, sees such *secrecy+ as the direct result of *sovereign po#er, the po#er of the modern nation.state+ She goes on; *Sovereign po#er produces and is itself produced by trauma; it provo$es #ars, genocides and famines 6ut it #or$s by concealing its involvement and claiming to be a provider not a destroyer of security+ CxvD /or Ed$ins this means that trauma results not (ust from violence or threats to the integrity of the self, but specifically #hen that threat comes from a previously trusted source;

9? 'hat #e call trauma ta$es place #hen the very po#ers that #e are convinced #ill protect us and give us security become our tormentors; #hen the community of #hich #e considered ourselves members turns against us or #hen our family is no longer a source of refuge but a site of danger C:D 0i$e ,erman, Ed$ins implies that trauma is caused by secrecy and treachery, rather than the physical act of violence as such -gain li$e ,erman, she places abuse of #omen as central *!he modern state cannot be assumed to be a place of safety, any more than the patriarchal family can Political abuse in one parallels sexual abuse in the other 6oth give rise to #hat #e call symptoms of trauma+ C>D -nother important example of the implications of trauma for society and politics is the controversy over so.called *recovered memories+ 8ichard 5cBally, in his chapter on *!he Politics of !rauma+ in %emem+ering Trauma C2009D, describes ho# this unfolded %n the United States in the =?80s, some psychologists claimed that extremely high percentages of #omen had been sexually abused in childhood, and that repressed traumatic memories of this abuse could be recovered using hypnotherapy -t the same time, 5cBally documents, *child #elfare #or$ers #ere claiming to have discovered #idespread current abuse of children in daycare centers+ C>D !hese developments led to many la#suits and care home sac$ings %n response, the /alse 5emory Syndrome /oundation C/5S/D #as set up in =??2 by a group of accused parents !his organisation argued, #ith bac$ing from scientists in the field, *that therapeutic techni"ues Fincluding hypnosisG designed to recover hidden memories of trauma often result in the inadvertent creation of psychologically compelling but false memories of abuse+ C=:.=<D 5any of those States of -merica that had changed the statute of limitations to allo# for memories from childhood being cited decades later in court no# reversed their decisions, #hile some patients sued their therapists for malpractice Bevertheless therapists #ho believed in the importance of recovering repressed memories of trauma fought bac$, arguing that the /5S/ #anted to *buttress the forces of patriarchy and silence the voices of survivors+ C=8D !hey also claimed that there #as no evidence that false memories could be created during therapy

:0 5cBally documents a related incident that illustrates further ho# political trauma has become %n =??8, an article< published in a respected psychological (ournal, #hich meta.analysed data regarding childhood sexual experiences, concluded that these experiences rarely predicted poor ad(ustment or other problems in adult life; *0asting psychological harm #as the exception, not the rule+ C5cBally 29D !he United States 1ongress acted to condemn the article, gaining the support of the academic hierarchy Unsurprisingly, *FmGany psychologists #ere outraged that leaders of the -merican Psychological -ssociation had capitulated to political pressure+ C2:D, and #orried that academic freedom and scientific method #ere under threat -s 5cBally notes; *%n addition to highlighting the ha4ards of conducting politically controversial research, this incident illustrated (ust ho# explosive the topic of trauma had become in -merican society+ C2<D !hese political issues surrounding trauma stem in part from differing interpretations of the clinical definition of P!SD -s noted above, the first official codification of the condition #as in the third edition of the -merican Psychiatric -ssociation2s .iagnostic and &tatistical !anual C=?80D Perhaps reflecting its origins in post.@ietnam protests, #hich emphasised the particular horrors of that #ar, this definition specified that for an event to be sufficiently traumatic to give rise to a diagnosis of P!SD, it must be *outside the range of usual human experience+ C"td in 1aruth 9D ,o#ever, subse"uent epidemiological studies found that relatively common events li$e rape and road accidents K very much #ithin the range of usual human experience K also often lead to P!SD 1onse"uently, the fourth edition of the -S-2s !anual in =??: C.&!@I<D removed this clause %nstead of *outside the range+, the !anual and other textboo$s no# emphasi4e the *extreme+ or *over#helming+ nature of trauma *!he essential feature of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder+, the -S-2s definition begins, *is the development of characteristic symptoms follo#ing exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor+ C.&!@I<@T% :H9D
H

Similarly, the Concise 7,ford Te,t+oo- of Psychiatry

CC7TPD notes that *usually the event is so intense as to be over#helming+ C?0D, #hile Elsevier2s Te,t+oo- of Psychiatry CToPD says that P!SD arises *from the over#helming and overloading of normal emotional processing+ C229D !his over#helming extremity
<

8ind, 6 , P !romovitch, and 8 6auserman *- meta.analytic examination of assumed properties of child sexual abuse using college samples + Psychological "ulletin =2: C=??8D; 22.<9 H !o bridge the gap bet#een the =??: text and a pro(ected fifth edition in 20=2, the -S- issued a J!ext 8evision2 C.&!@I<@T%D in 2000 %t is this version to #hich my pagination refers

:= must involve *direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious in(ury, or other threat to one2s physical integrity+, or, e"ually, *#itnessing+ such an event, or even merely *learning about+ its happening to a loved one C.&!@I<@T% :H9D Events that may trigger P!SD include military combat, violent personal assault Csexual assault, physical attac$, robbery, muggingD, being $idnapped, being ta$en hostage, terrorist attac$, torture, incarceration as a prisoner of #ar or in a concentration camp, natural or manmade disasters, severe automobile accidents, or being diagnosed #ith a life. threatening illness C.&!@I<@T% :H9.:D !his #ide range of experience problemati4es the application of clinical P!SD to other discourses /or example, trauma is often used as a frame#or$ to describe the experience of the ,olocaust 6ut to many, any $ind of relativi4ation of this event is anathema, let alone the comparison #ith being mugged, and indeed it is difficult to see #hat factors the t#o experiences have in common outside very narro# clinical criteria %f, then, this comparison is invalid, the concept of trauma may be an inappropriate model #ith #hich to interrogate the ,olocaust ,o#ever, for theorists of trauma, it is not so much the event itself as the memory of that event that is of central concern -s 0eys points out, for the purposes of trauma studies, P!SD is *fundamentally a disorder of memory+ C2D !his focus arises from the fact that sufferers from P!SD are, typically, haunted by intrusive and repetitive memories of their trauma Lccasionally this includes a strange experience #hereby the past event is felt to be still someho# happening in the present; %n rare instances, the person experiences dissociative states that last from a fe# seconds to several hours, or even days, during #hich components of the event are relived and the person behaves as though experiencing the event at that moment C1riterion 69D !hese episodes, often referred to as Jflashbac$s2, are typically brief but can be associated #ith prolonged distress and heightened arousal C.&!@I<@T% :H:D 1linicians have explained this phenomenon #ith reference to ideas of *narrative+ and *autobiographical+ memory, #hich is thought to be disrupted by traumatic events !he $e# 7,ford Te,t+oo- of Psychiatry C$7TPD describes this line of diagnostic thin$ing;

:2 P!SD patients have relatively poor intentional recall of the traumatic event !heir narratives of the event tend to be fragmented and disorgani4ed 'ith successful treatment, the narratives become elaborated and organi4ed !hese observations have led to the hypothesis that insufficient elaboration of the event and its meaning leads to the re.experiencing symptoms of P!SD -utobiographical memories are normally organi4ed in a #ay that prevents triggering of very vivid and emotional re.experiencing of an event 8ecall is driven by themes and personal time periods, and it is relatively abstract Ehlers and 1lar$ suggested that re.experiencing in P!SD occurs because the trauma memory is inade"uately lin$ed to its context in time, place, and other autobiographical memories Stimuli that resemble those present during the traumatic event can thus trigger vivid memories and strong emotional responses that are experienced as if the event #as happening right no# C>H:D @arious treatments have been suggested for this dissociative state, including drugs, hypnotherapy, and 1ognitive.6ehavioural !herapy C16!D 16! involves exposing the patient to the source or site of the trauma, both literally and by #ay of the imagination !his *repeated reliving of the event helps Fthe patientG to create an organised memory and facilitates the distinction that intrusive thoughts and images are memories rather than something happening right no#+ C$7TP >H>D ,o#ever, the most popular treatment approach is referred to variously by the textboo$s as *tal$ing cure+, *#or$ing through+ or *testimony+ %n a typical formulation, it involves going over the *trauma story+ in order *to rehearse the trauma and rea#a$en associated emotions+, #ith the aim of achieving *habituation+ to them CToP 22:D Descended from /reudian psychoanalysis, this process of #or$ing.through re"uires the presence of a listener or therapist Dori 0aub, a ,olocaust survivor, psychotherapist and co.founder of the /ortunoff @ideo -rchive for ,olocaust !estimonies at Eale University, ta$es this theory to its extreme in his contributions to Testimony: Crises of )itnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History C=??2D %n his chapter *6earing 'itness, or the @icissitudes of 0istening+, 0aub argues that as a listener to ,olocaust survivors, he is *the enabler of testimony+ C<8D, and that the act of uncovering traumatic memory is *a (ourney the survivor cannot traverse or return from alone+ C<?D /or 0aub, this process is not one of remembering, but of discovery; *Sno#ledge in the testimony is F G not simply a factual given that is reproduced and replicated by the testifier, but a genuine advent, an event in its o#n right+ CH2D 0aub accounts for this radical epistemology #ith a hypothesis about the #ay the brain deals #ith traumatic events !rauma, he asserts, is *a record that has yet to be made 5assive trauma

:9 precludes its registrationA the observing and recording mechanisms of the human mind are temporarily $noc$ed out, malfunction+ C<>D 0aub2s theory suggests that the explanation for traumatic *flashbac$s+ is that the mind is unable to cope #ith certain experiences, fails to *register+ them as memories, and instead confronts the survivor #ith a repeat of the experience that can only be transformed into a memory through the act of testimony !raumatic flashbac$s, in this analysis, are hardly memories at all, at least in the usual sense of temporally mediated recollections 8ather, they are instances of the literal return of the event itself !his vie# is shared by 6essel - van der Sol$, a clinical psychologist #hose #ritings on trauma in the early =??0s have proved highly influential Sol$2s theories are dra#n from his study of the previously largely forgotten nineteenth century psychotherapist Pierre 7anet 7anet made a distinction bet#een *narrative memory+ and *automatic synthesis+ or *habit memory+ Cno#adays usually $no#n as *implicit memory+D 'hile #e share habit memory #ith animals, narrative memory is uni"uely human 7anet thought that extreme experiences resist *integration+ into narrative memory, *#hich causes the memory of these experiences to be stored differently and not be available for retrieval under ordinary conditionsA it becomes dissociated from conscious a#areness and voluntary control+ Cvan der Sol$, *%ntrusive Past+ =H0D Sol$ claims that as a result of this dissociation, traumatic memories are not sub(ect to the usual process of distortion and inaccuracy over time, nor are they contaminated by sub(ective meaning, re. interpretation, or elaboration %nstead they are *engraved+ on the mind, and as such represent a literal, unassailable truth about the past !raumatic memories, the *unassimilated scraps of over#helming experience+ C=>HD, are *inflexible and invariable+ C=H9D ,o#ever, collecting up scraps of experience and transforming them into narrative does not necessarily re"uire the memories to be traumatic as such Proust2s *madeleine+ is a case in point *5Qmoire involontaire+ is, for Proust, the mechanism that triggers recollection of the pastA voluntary or intellectual effort is al#ays doomed to fail 'alter 6en(amin notes that this involuntary memory Can adaptation of 6ergson2s *mQmoire pure+D refers to *only #hat has not been experienced explicitly and consciously, #hat has not happened to the sub(ect as an experience+ C=<>D !his is reminiscent of 0aub2s idea that *massive trauma precludes its registrationA the observing and recording

:: mechanisms of the human mind are temporarily $noc$ed out+, and of Sol$2s assertion that traumatic experience *becomes dissociated from conscious a#areness and voluntary control+ 6ut Proust #as #riting about the return of untraumatic childhood memories, #hich nevertheless eluded him before returning in the same po#erful manner as *massive trauma+ is supposed by this theory to do, before being re.integrated into his life story in the form of A la %echerche du Tem s Perdu !o #hat extent, then, is involuntary memory inherently traumatic) /or 1athy 1aruth, trauma is central to all $inds of memory and indeed to experience in general 1aruth ta$es the ideas of non.registration C0aubD and undistorted truth CSol$D into the realm of critical theory, exploring their implications for history and memory %n a #idely "uoted formulation from her %ntroduction to Trauma: E, lorations in !emory C=??<D, 1aruth asserts that the pathology cannot be defined either by the event itself K #hich may or may not be catastrophic, and may not traumati4e everyone e"ually K nor can it be defined in terms of a distortion of the event, achieving its haunting po#er as a result of distorting personal significances attached to it !he pathology consists, rather, solely in the structure of its e, erience or reception; the event is not assimilated or experienced fully at the time, but only belatedly, in its repeated ossession of the one #ho experiences it !o be traumati4ed is precisely to be possessed by an image or event C:.<, emphasis in originalD /or 1aruth, the experience of possession is *the literal return of the event against the #ill of the one it inhabits+, and this essential *truth+ of traumatic experience is al#ays only experienced *belatedly+ C<D 1aruth2s crucial idea of belatedness dra#s on t#o interrelated /reudian concepts; $achtr9glich-eit C*deferred action+, *after#ardsness+D and latency !he idea of latency is partly based on P!SD symptomatology 1linical psychologists have noted that there is often a delay, sometimes of "uite significant length, bet#een shoc$ing event and traumatic symptom !his has led to the creation of a sub.category in .&!@I<, *'ith Delayed Lnset+, #hich is reserved for patients #hose symptoms appear more than six months after the event -ccording to the $e# 7,ford Te,t+oo- of Psychiatry, this *is found in a minority C== per cent or lessD of the cases+ C>H<D Bevertheless it has proved highly suggestive for 1aruth, #ho has extended it through her idea of *belated+ personal

:< trauma into the realm of history, arguing that events only gain their force from the temporal delay #ith #hich they are experienced; !he historical po#er of the trauma is not (ust that the experience is repeated after its forgetting, but that it is only in and through its inherent forgetting that it is first experienced at all F G /or history to be a history of a trauma means that it is referential precisely to the extent that it is not fully perceived as it occursA or to put it some#hat differently, that a history can only be grasped in the very inaccessibility of its occurrence C8D /or this argument 1aruth relies on /reud2s !oses and !onotheism C=?9?D, a text #hose importance she argues has been Ctraumatically)D forgotten %n this, his last ma(or #or$, /reud attempted to re#rite the history of the 7e#ish people in terms of traumatic latency ,e argued that the source of 7e#ish monotheism is the hitherto concealed truth that 5oses #as an Egyptian, one #ho became influenced by the monotheistic *-ton+ religion that #as favoured by a short.lived Pharaoh -fter leading the Exodus, /reud hypothesi4es, 5oses #as eventually murdered in a revolt ,o#ever, the memory of his leadership and his monotheistic ideas resurfaced generations later, (ust as the descendants of 5oses2 7e#s #ere accepting 7ahve as their 3od; !he religion of 5oses F G had not perished - sort of memory of it had survived, obscured and distorted F G %t #as this tradition of a great past that continued to exert its effect from the bac$groundA it slo#ly attained more and more po#er over the minds of the people, and at last succeeded in changing the 3od 7ahve into the 3od of 5oses and in bringing again to life the abandoned religion 5oses had instituted centuries ago C=?HD %n order to bac$ up this revolutionary claim, /reud proposes a psychological analogy that har$s bac$ to the lin$ bet#een trauma and rail#ay accidents first made eighty years earlier; %t may happen that someone gets a#ay from, apparently unharmed, the spot #here he has suffered a shoc$ing accident, for instance a train collision %n the course of the follo#ing #ee$s, ho#ever, he develops a series of grave psychical and motor symptoms, #hich one can ascribe only to his shoc$ or #hatever else happened at the time of the accident ,e has developed a *traumatic neurosis+ !his appears "uite incomprehensible and is therefore a novel fact !he time that elapsed bet#een the accident and the first appearance of the symptoms is called the *incubation period+, a transparent allusion to the pathology of infectious disease -s an afterthought #e observe that K in spite of the fundamental difference in the t#o cases, the problem of the traumatic neurosis and that of

:H 7e#ish 5onotheism K there is a correspondence in one point %t is the feature #hich one might term latency !here are the best grounds for thin$ing that in the history of the 7e#ish religion there is a long period K after the brea$ing a#ay from the 5oses religion K during #hich no trace is to be found of the monotheistic idea, the condemnation of ceremonial and the emphasis on the ethical side !hus #e are prepared for the possibility that the solution of our problem is to be sought in a special psychological situation C=0?.=0D /reud goes on to re(ect this analogy as inade"uate to explain his monotheism hypothesis, instead falling bac$ on his abiding interest in childhood neuroses %n this he alludes to the more complex idea of $achtr9glich-eit -nne 'hitehead explains ho# $achtr9glich-eit informs 1aruth2s thought; /or /reud, the concept refers to the #ays in #hich certain experiences, impressions and memory traces are revised at a later date in order to correspond #ith fresh experiences or #ith the attainment of a ne# stage of development /reud2s conception involves a radical rethin$ing of the causality and temporality of memory !he traumatic incident is not fully ac$no#ledged at the time that it occurs and only becomes an event at some later point of intense emotional crisis 1aruth2s understanding of trauma re#or$s *deferred action+ as belatedness and models itself on /reud2s conception of the non.linear temporal relation to the past CHD ,o#ever, this interpretation of $achtr9glich-eit is arguably a distortion of /reud2s meaning 'hitehead and 1aruth2s account posits the occurrence of an initial *traumatic incident+, but for /reud, the trauma arises rather through the connection bet#een t#o separate moments in time -s 0eys explains, in /reud2s conception of $achtr9glich-eit, trauma #as constituted by a relationship bet#een t#o events or experiences K a first event that #as not necessarily traumatic because it came too early in the child2s development to be understood and assimilated, and a second event that also #as not inherently traumatic but that triggered a memory of the first event that only then #as given traumatic meaning and hence repressed C20D !his is rather different from the idea of belated possession by traumatic memories 0eys critici4es 1aruth for selective "uoting of /reud to construct ne# meaning from his ideas /or 0eys, 1aruth2s interpretation of $achtr9glich-eit is *stripped of the idea of the retroactive conferral of meaning on past sexual experiences and reduced instead to the idea of literal if belated repetition of the traumatic event+ C2>0.=D

:> !his, % #ould argue, results from 1aruth2s reliance on Sol$2s theory of the literal truth of *flashbac$+ traumatic memories -s discussed above, Sol$ asserts that traumatic events are not remembered in the usual #ay, but instead are dissociated from normal thought, and return *intrusively+ of their o#n accord %n %emem+ering Trauma, 5cBally see$s to "uestion this entire frame of reference, #hich relies on t#in assumptions of dissociation and forgetting Synthesi4ing clinical psychology, cognitive neuroscience and developmental psychology, 5cBally ma$es three counter.assertions to the orthodoxy of trauma; /irst, people remember horrific experiences all too #ell @ictims are seldom incapable of remembering their trauma Second, people sometimes do not thin$ about disturbing events for long periods of time, only to be reminded of them later ,o#ever, events that are experienced as over#helmingly traumatic at the time of their occurrence rarely slip from a#areness !hird, there is no reason to postulate a special mechanism of repression or dissociation to explain #hy people may not thin$ about disturbing experiences for long periods - failure to thin$ about something does not entail an inability to remember it CamnesiaD C2D !his argument implicitly challenges the 7anetian idea that traumatic memories are *stored+ differently from other recollections 5oreover, 5cBally2s criticism undermines the central concept of dissociation, not#ithstanding its appearance in psychiatric textboo$s !he field, it #ould seem, is far from unified - further problem of Sol$2s argument is his reliance on 7anet2s concept of *narrative memory+ 7anet considered remembering to be a *creative act+ C"td in van der Sol$, *Pierre 7anet+ 9H8D in #hich #e assemble *the chapters in our personal history+ during an *action of telling a story+ C"td in van der Sol$, *%ntrusive Past+ =>HD !his argument assumes a linear temporality to memory, #hich has been critici4ed by, for example, the philosopher %an ,ac$ing %n %e#riting the &oul: !ulti le Personality and the &ciences of !emory C=??<D, ,ac$ing asserts that memory is in fact composed of images and scenes, and uses this to challenge the vie# that *flashbac$s+ are any different from other recollections; F G those #ho describe remembering as narrative often intend to undercut any privilege of memory as a means of getting at the truth about the past 6ut in fact they create a space for another $ind of memory, a special $ind of memory, #hich is then, by its advocates, given special rights 5y approach says that their logical error begins #hen one identifies remembering #ith narration !hat

:8 ma$es a flashbac$ something #hose very nature is different from other memory 6ut if recollection is to be compared to thin$ing of scenes and episodes Cand describing or narrating them on occasionD, then it is not intrinsically different from other remembering !here is no reason to believe that the flashbac$ experience is better at getting at the unvarnished truth than any other type of remembering C2<9D !his debate bet#een image and narration points to the possible connection bet#een photography and memory /reud often used the photographic process as an analogy for the #or$ings of memory, and of the psyche in general %n !oses and !onotheism, for instance, he compared childhood memories that resurface in later life to forgotten, undeveloped photographs that can still be turned into prints years later C=?8.?D 7 7 0ong summari4es the results of this line of thought for contemporary trauma theorists; *!he psychic processes by #hich the past is remembered can thus be seen as someho# duplicating the process of photography FandG the process of photography corresponds to the sudden recall of buried memories after a period of latency+ C=2HD Stefanie ,arris, applying Sol$2s vie# of traumatic memory, argues that the *discontinuous temporal structure+ of trauma may also be applied to photographs, #hich represent an *arrested+ instant in time that lac$s the continuity of moving pictures C98>D Ulrich 6aer echoes this and, adding the 0aub idea of non.registration, argues that, li$e the *pu44lingly accurate imprinting on the mind of an over#helming reality+ found in trauma, photography provides a *mechanically recorded instant that #as not necessarily registered by the sub(ect2s o#n consciousness+ C8D ,o#ever, this line of thin$ing, #hile potentially productive for the study of photography, is less helpful in explaining ho# memory #or$s Beurological science has moved on since /reud2s hypothetical metaphors, and #ould be unli$ely to compare the simple mechanics of a camera #ith the complexities of the human brain Eet another problem #ith the distinction bet#een *flashbac$s+ and other types of memory lies in its therapeutic aspect Sol$ argues that 7anet2s purpose in defining narrative memory #as to enable those suffering dissociative states to re.integrate their intrusive memories and thereby achieve psychic health ,o#ever, 0eys contends that this interpretation relies on a highly selective reading of 7anet She sho#s that the apparent desire to convert *traumatic memory+ into *narrative memory+ is contradicted in other papers by 7anet #hich instead advocate *excision+, *acceptation+ and *resignation+ %ndeed, 0eys interprets 7anet2s corpus as emphasi4ing not the healing of

:? trauma but its forgetting She argues that *for 7anet, narrated recollection #as insufficient for the cure - supplementary action #as re"uired, one that involved a process of *li"uidation+ that, terminologically, sounded suspiciously li$e *exorcism+ or *forgetting+ C==HD !he contradictions of 7anet2s #or$ are, 0eys argues, echoed throughout the history of therapeutic approaches to trauma /or 0eys, notions of trauma have al#ays been, and continue to be, inherently unstable, o#ing to a constant oscillation bet#een *mimetic+ and *anti.mimetic+ approaches !he mimetic vie# of trauma, she explains, assumes the testifying victim to have an element of unreliability, because his or her memory is a hypnotic imitation or process of *acting out+ 5ean#hile the antimimetic school Cexemplified by Sol$ and 1aruthD imagines the spea$er as an aloof spectator to their traumatic memory #ho can reliably represent it as a literal historic truth, uncontaminated by sub(ectivity or identification #ith any perpetrator 0eys asserts that #hile most theorists of trauma have attempted to advocate one of these over the other, and in some cases, such as #ith /reud, moved bet#een them during their career, the t#o modes are inextricable from each other C9<.:0D 0eys2 boo$ includes sustained criticism of the #or$ of 1aruth, especially for the latter2s e"uation of trauma #ith literal truth 0eys2 attac$ has elicited a furious response from Shoshana /elman in an extended footnote from her 2002 boo$ The *uridical :nconscious /elman broadly attac$s 0eys2 analysis as being derivative and reductive 5ore interestingly, /elman reveals a "uasi.mystical belief in the radical un$no#ability of trauma She argues that 0eys2 opposition bet#een mimesis and anti.mimesis *reduces the surprise and the un$no#n of trauma to the Cpurely academicD $no#n %t extrapolates in fact from the complexity and from the foreignness of the unconscious an esthetici4ing and familiari4ing terminology of consciousness+ C=>8 n 9D /elman2s underlying point is that trauma is inherently resistant to the sort of *morali4ing+ and *normali4ing+ C=80 n 9D attempted by 0eys /elman tal$s of *the radicality of trauma itself K the #ay in #hich CpreciselyD the event of trauma destabili4es the security of $no#ledge and stri$es at the foundation of the institutional prerogatives of #hat is $no#n+ C=8= n 9D 0eys, according to /elman, *in principle denies the conse"uences by #hich trauma refuses to be pigeonholed and fundamentally subverts our frames of

<0 reference+ C=8= n 9D !rauma is *the surprise and the un$no#n+ C=>8 n 9D, a *be#ildering phenomenon+ C=82 n 9D that can never be fully explained !his argument points to a central contradiction in trauma theory bet#een, on the one hand, the 7anetian emphasis on re.integrating the trauma into narrative memory, #hich leads in the #or$ of 0aub and Sol$ to the possibility of healing through reclaiming the truth, and on the other, trauma2s essential incomprehensibility and inaccessibility, as asserted by /elman and 1aruth, #hose #or$ is built on the unstable foundations of the first group 0iterality and incomprehensibility are, % #ould argue, incompatible concepts !he #or$ of 1aruth exemplifies this inherent contradiction, in particular her comments on testimony !hough she believes in the *truth+ of traumatic memory, 1aruth does not favour the healing through tal$ingInarrativi4ation approach as it may interfere #ith its sanctity 6ecause *trauma F G evo$eFsG the difficult truth of a history that is constituted by the very incomprehensibility of its occurrence+, the flashbac$ memory experienced by the survivor conveys both *the truth of the event, and the truth of its incom rehensi+ility+, leading to a dilemma of sacrilege in #hich *tal$ing it out+ in order to effect a cure #ill lose the memory2s specificity and precision, the *force of its affront to understanding+ C=<9.:, emphasis in originalD 1aruth cites 1laude 0an4mann2s &hoah as an example of ho# to get around this problem, noting the film. ma$er2s avo#ed determination not to understand, only listen *!he attempt to gain access to a traumatic history, then, is also the pro(ect of listening beyond the pathology of individual suffering, to the reality of a history that in its crises can only be perceived in unassimilable forms+ C=<HD 1aruth, li$e /elman, thus paradoxically argues that trauma is simultaneously incomprehensible and the $ey to *gainFingG access+ to the past Such approaches have been critici4ed by Dominic$ 0a1apra as tending to#ards the traumatic sublime 8eferring to the passage "uoted above, in #hich 1aruth #arns against sacrilegiously diluting the force of the trauma, 0a1apra #rites; *1aruth here seems dangerously close to conflating absence Cof absolute foundations and total meaning or $no#ledgeD #ith loss and even sacrali4ing, or ma$ing sublime, the compulsive repetition of acting.out of a traumatic past+ CHistory =2=D !his argument is based on 0a1apra2s important distinctions bet#een absence and loss, and bet#een structural and historical trauma 0osses, he points out, are distinct and factual, #hile

<= absence is more generali4ed and tends to#ards the mythical or sublime 0osses occur in actual historical trauma, such as, for example, the ,olocaust, #hile absence corresponds to structural trauma, as #ith every child2s separation from the #omb and mother 1onfusion bet#een the t#o has conse"uences both for the individual and for society; 'hen absence and loss are conflated, melancholic paralysis or manic agitation may set in, and the significance or force of particular historical losses Cfor example, those of apartheid or the ShoahD may be obfuscated or rashly generalised -s a conse"uence one encounters the dubious ideas that everyone Cincluding perpetrators or collaboratorsD is a victim, that all history is trauma, or that #e all share a pathological public sphere or a J#ound culture2 C)riting H:D !his latter phrase originates in 5ar$ Selt4er2s article about public fascination #ith serial $illers, *'ound 1ulture; !rauma in the Pathological Public Sphere+ C=??>D Selt4er defines #ound culture as *the public fascination #ith torn and opened bodies and torn and opened persons, a collective gathering around shoc$, trauma, and the #ound+ C9D #hich leads to an over.identification #ith suffering !he idea of all history being trauma, mean#hile, 0a1apra attributes mainly to 1aruth and her assertion that *a history can only be grasped in the very inaccessibility of its occurrence+ -gainst this tendency to conflate absence and loss, 0a1apra urges *#or$ing.through+ !his concept, though /reudian and therapeutic in origin, means for 0a1apra not a process of healing or closure but more of ac$no#ledging the pain of the past and turning #ith hope to#ards the future 'or$ing.through thus *counteracts the tendency to sacrali4e trauma or to convert it into a founding or sublime event K a traumatic sublime or transfigured moment of blan$ insight and revelatory ab(ection+ CHistory =29D -nother version of the traumatic sublime relates to the 0acanian vie# of child development 8oth and Salas, in .istur+ing %emains: !emory, History, and Crisis in the T#entieth Century C200=D, describe this tendency; */or some, trauma is a basic feature of consciousness -#a$ening to the real is itself said to be traumatic and thus to undermine the unity and stability of the individual sub(ect+ C2D Such a vie# has political conse"uences Ed$ins, for example, adapts this version of trauma K the irruption of the real into the symbolic order K into a call for political action, thereby sacrali4ing traumatic events as moments not of ab(ection but of *revelation+ C<D /or Ed$ins, trauma alone allo#s us to glimpse the real and brea$ out of the symbolic order, from the linear time of the *political+ into the *trauma time+ of active *politics+ C=<D

<2 ,o#ever, Ed$ins2 thesis, li$e 1aruth2s, again suggests the incompatibility of notions of narrativi4ation of traumatic memory #ith its supposed resistance to comprehension !his is seen in her opposition to the normali4ation of trauma that occurs in, for example, state.led memoriali4ation pro(ects, as these involve a *re.inscription into linear narratives FthatG generally depoliticises+ C=<D -dopting phrases from Slavo( XiYe$2s For They =no# $ot )hat They .o C=??=D, she argues that there is an alternative, that of encircling the trauma 'e cannot try to address the trauma directly #ithout ris$ing its gentrification 'e cannot remember it as something that too$ place in time, because this #ould neutralise it -ll #e can do is *to encircle again and again the site+ of the trauma, *to mar$ it in its very impossibility+ C=<D XiYe$2s #ord *impossibility+ may ta$e its place alongside /elman2s *be#ildering+, *surprisFingG+ and *un$no#n+, and 1aruth2s *incomprehensibility+ and *unassimabFilityG+, in the ad(ectival pantheon of trauma !hat this lexicon resembles the rhetoric of the ,olocaust, #hich as my %ntroduction noted includes notions of the *incomprehensible+, *incommensurable+, and *ineffable+, is not surprising, given that the ,olocaust has become the "uintessential traumatic event of recent history 5oreover, these negative descriptions fundamentally clash #ith the simultaneously held vie# that traumatic memories represent a positive and literal truth about the past - #ay out of this dead end, % #ould argue, is to move beyond problematic notions of literality 'e may grant the over#helming po#er and importance of traumatic symptoms in #ar veterans, sexual abuse victims and ,olocaust survivors #ithout having to assume the unimpeachable accuracy of their memories !raumatic events may be relived time and again by survivors, #hether *dissociatively+ or not, but it does not follo# that their memories are any more reliable than those of non.victims %ndeed, 0aub himself cites the example of an -usch#it4 survivor #ith an inaccurate memory of the failed rebellion there !his #oman remembered four chimneys being set abla4e, #hereas historical research suggests that it #as only one /or 0aub this merely highlights the unhelpfulness of empirical vie#s of truth #hen confronted #ith the over#helming truth of traumatic memory, an argument considered further in 1hapter 9 of the present study /or no#, it #ill be apparent ho# such examples problemati4e any notion of literal verisimilitude of recall by victims of traumatic events %ndeed, in their

<9 %ntroduction to Trauma and !emory C=??HD, editors 'illiams and 6anyard cite a gro#ing body of evidence that proves these memories to be sub(ect to the same distortion as any other, despite the evidence that traumatic memory does indeed #or$ differently, sho#ing that these facts are not inherently incompatible; !here is also a profusion of research on suggestibility and memory that sho#s that memory is reconstructive and imperfect, that memory can be influenced and distorted, that confabulation can occur to fill in memory gaps, and that sub(ects can be persuaded to believe they heard, sa#, or experienced events that they did not %naccurate memories can be strongly believed and convincingly described - number of studies have been conducted to assess directly the implantation of memories for events that #ould be traumatic had they occurred F G F G most studies indicate that =<Z to 2<Z of individuals #ill, after several attempts, report memories for fictitious events CxiiD !his may seem an artificial exercise, but a similarly problematic result occurs in the normal run of treatment for trauma -s 0eys notes; *!he hypnotic suggestibility of the victim of dissociation or P!SD ma$es the patient2s testimony about the historical truth of the traumatic origin inherently suspect o#ing to the potential for hypnotic confabulation and Jfalse memories2+ C98D Bevertheless, the idea of the unimpeachable truth of traumatic memories persists Lne reason for this is the desire for (ustice and retribution %n contemporary society, it seems, perpetrators must be punished, *truth and reconciliation+ must be achieved, and events li$e the ,olocaust must be memoriali4ed %f memories are seen to be unreliable, leading to distortion and forgetting, such pro(ects become harder to sustain 5oreover, they also rely on the assumption that trauma can account for collective as #ell as individual experience ,erman, for example, ma$es an explicit lin$ bet#een personal and community trauma, arguing that there is a correspondence bet#een the repression of painful memories by individuals and society2s avoidance of unpalatable facts; *!he $no#ledge of horrible events periodically intrudes into public a#areness, but is rarely retained for long Denial, repression, and dissociation operate on a social as #ell as an individual level+ C2D !hus, for ,erman; *8emembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prere"uisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims+ C=D ,o#ever, this can only be achieved if the truthful memory is available for retrieval, a point #hich does not necessarily follo#, troubling though this is for those #ho rightly #ish to punish perpetrators for their crimes

<:

-nother example of research into collective trauma motivated by a desire for political (ustice is Sai Eri$son2s analysis of the reaction of small communities to local disasters, such as floods and industrial gas lea$s Such groups, Eri$son argues, may be said to be traumati4ed in t#o #ays /irst, they may suffer *damage to the tissues that hold human groups intact+ Second, they may experience the *creation of social climates, communal moods, that come to dominate a group2s spirit+ C=?0D 1ommunities may, as a result, develop a different #orldvie# in that they no longer screen out the dangers around them, living in a perpetual state of anxiety and fear - more theoretical example of the transference of trauma from the individual to the collective sphere is -ndreas ,uyssen2s psychoanalysis of the entire 3erman nation in his chapter *8e#ritings and Be# 6eginnings+ from Present Pasts: :r+an Palim sests and the Politics of !emory C2009D ,uyssen asserts that post.#ar 3erman society has suffered a multi.layered trauma consisting of the humiliation of total defeat, ,olocaust guilt, expulsion from the East, and the aftermath of destruction caused by -llied bombardment !his trauma, ,uyssen argues, has manifested itself as a *repetitive obsession+ #ith *ne# beginnings+ %n =?:<, =?H8 and =??0, 3erman society reverberated #ith ideas of *$euanf9nge Ffresh startG, $ull un-e F4ero pointG, ta+ula rasa Fclean slateG, )ende un-te Fturning pointG+ C=::D ,uyssen suggests that this is a result of *the double.edged desire simultaneously to remember and to avoid the past+ C=:<.HD ,e goes on; *-ll survivors of traumatic experiences face the difficult tas$ of ne# beginnings 6ut the tension bet#een traumatic symptom and ne# beginning #ill necessarily remain unresolved, generating ever ne# attempts at resolution+ C=<=D ,ere ,uyssen dra#s on the orthodox psychoanalytical observation that people #ho fail to #or$ through their trauma are liable to suffer re.experiencing symptoms after a period of latency, the goal of therapy being to resolve this and stop the repetition !his argument rests on the assumption that a clinical model may be extended to the consciousness of an entire nation, #hich for ,uyssen is revealed not (ust by socio. political events but also by the literature that nation produces %ndeed, it is from post. #ar 3erman literature that ,uyssen dra#s much of his evidence; *0i$e the public culture from #hich post#ar 3erman literature emerged and that it shaped in turn, this literature lives off repetitions, reinscriptions, and re#ritings that ma$e any historical

<< account of post#ar literary developments as a stable progression through the decades inherently problematic+ C=<HD ,uyssen thus moves from psychoanalysis to socio.historical theory, and thence to literature 6ut is literature explicable through the concept of trauma) -re the movements of literary history attributable to a collective version of traumatic *flashbac$s+ to an unassimilated memory of the past) Does this someho# explain the fact and nature of contemporary ,olocaust narratives) 'hat does this say about the role of the author in relation to the past, especially if he or she too$ no part in that past) 'hat is the relationship bet#een #riting and trauma) !hese are difficult "uestions, and ones for #hich only provisional ans#ers may be offered #ithin the scope of the present study Bevertheless, % #ish to suggest that the paradoxes, contradictions and uncertainties of trauma theory, as detailed above, render any use of that theory to explain the #or$ings of literature inherently problematic -n obvious example of the inapplicability of certain vie#s of traumatic memory to literature is the case of 6in(amin 'il$omirs$i2s false ,olocaust memoir Fragments !his affair graphically sho#s ho# traumatic memory does not al#ays correspond to truth 'il$omirs$i is by all accounts genuinely traumati4ed by his memories of being a child in Ba4i concentration camps, yet these recollections have been proved to be false %n this instance, traumatic memory has led to the production of a narrative that is an inherently deceptive #or$ of fiction Cas % argue in 1hapter 9 of the present studyD Lf course, this is a rare case, and other contemporary ,olocaust narratives do not suffer from the same peculiar set of circumstances %n an article on literature and ,olocaust remembrance, Bicola Sing explores *the #ays in #hich fiction might be a Jsite of memory2 as the generation #ho directly experienced it begins to die out+ C?:D ,o#ever, as Sing notes, the contemporary novelist inhabits a problematic position of #itness after the event !his may be resolved #ith reference to a model in #hich the author ta$es on a sense of *responsibility+ a$in to *the tas$ of the therapist+ C?>D by restoring the lost or fractured memories of survivors Creal or imaginedD to narrative coherence !his in turn corresponds #ith the 7anetian vie# of trauma in memory as personal life story -s Sol$ #rites, *!raumatic memories are the unassimilated scraps of over#helming experiences, #hich need to be integrated #ith existing mental schemes, and be transformed into narrative language+ C*%ntrusive+ =>HD %f this is so,

<H then to narrate the memory of traumatic events in, for example, a novel, may, by extension, have some $ind of curative value Perhaps there is a parallel to be dra#n bet#een, on the one hand, the literary triad of #riter, reader and sub(ect, and on the other, the therapeutic situation of psychiatrist, patient and trauma Such a comparison is certainly implied in the #or$ of Dori 0aub 0aub asserts that #hen he intervie#s survivors, decades after the event, they are in some sense bearing #itness to the event for the first time !his is because the Ba4is *brutally imposed upon the victims a delusional ideology #hose grandiose coercive pressure totally excluded and eliminated the possibility of an unviolated, unencumbered, and thus sane, point of reference in the #itness+ C*Event+ 8=D 0aub thus extends his assertion that *massive trauma precludes its registration+ to argue that the ,olocaust #as, as the title of his chapter has it, *-n Event 'ithout a 'itness+ ,o#ever, he suggests that through the "uasi.therapeutic situation of the video intervie#, #hich preserves survivor memory in the archive, a belated form of #itness may be achieved K one #hich, moreover, neatly corresponds to the concept of latency; %t is not by chance that these testimonies K even if they #ere engendered during the event K become receivable only todayA it is not by chance that it is only no#, +elatedly, that the event begins to be historically grasped and seen % #ish to emphasi4e this historical ga #hich the event created in the collective #itnessing !his emphasis does not invalidate in any #ay the po#er and the value of the individual testimonies, but it underscores the fact that these testimonies #ere not transmittable, and integratable, at the time C8:, emphasis in originalD !hus not only #ere the traumatic events unassimilable at the time, they could not have been *transmitted+ to others until the latency period had elapsed 0aub alleges that no. one spo$e about the ,olocaust in the immediate post.#ar period, a silence that, he argues, #as partly the result of the continuing delusional sensibility imposed by the Ba4is on its victims %t is only no#, #ith the help of people such as himself, that #itness and healing may begin !his may seem a highly contentious argument, relying on unverified hypotheses about #hat people did or did not do or say in the post.#ar #orld 6ut 0aub goes even further, arguing, by #ay of analogy #ith the story of the Emperor2s Be# 1lothes, that members

<> of the present generation are *innocent children+ #ho can see through the Ba4i.imposed delusion, because they are *removed enough from the experience to begin to as$ "uestions+ C89D !his opposition bet#een survivors and later generations appears highly problematic, especially considering that 0aub, as a survivor himself, appears to be representing both groups ,o#ever, it does articulate a vie# that might help to (ustify certain forms of ,olocaust representation 1ould the analogy be extended to contemporary #riters #ho have ta$en as their sub(ect the traumas of the t#entieth century) -re #riters born after 'orld 'ar %% *innocent children+ #ith a clearer perspective on events than those #ho lived through them) !his #ould certainly invert the orthodoxy that testimonial literature has more value than fiction % #ould argue, ho#ever, that this genre "uestion is less important than the beliefs about traumatic memory that authors carry #ith them #hen #riting their narratives -s this chapter has attempted to sho#, these beliefs may rest on sha$y foundations !he concept of trauma, % have argued, is politically determined, clinically controversial, and theoretically confused in its tendency to#ards sublimating horrific experiences, re#riting older texts to its o#n ends, and ma$ing contradictory claims about truthfulness and incomprehensibility 'riters of contemporary ,olocaust narratives may be tempted to believe in the literal and unmediated truth of traumatic memories, or even in their untouchable sublimity, as a result of a desire to respect the suffering of victims and survivors, but #ithout an ob(ective vie# that includes truth.testing this attitude of respect ris$s becoming over.identification %n the next chapter of the present study % suggest that a version of empathy, developed from the #or$ of 0a1apra, may explain ho# some texts, such as those by Sebald and /oer, #or$ to avert this difficulty, through a gesture #hich ac$no#ledges the potential for identification #hile see$ing nevertheless to maintain a level of ob(ective distance

<8 Chapter % &esolving the pro lems of identification: LaCapra$ 'adamer$ self(refle)ivity and transgenerational empathy 'hen dealing #ith traumatic events li$e the ,olocaust, #hich touch us and arouse our sympathy, a degree of identification #ith victims is perhaps inevitable ,o#ever, this seems inappropriate and ethically dubious, given the gulf bet#een our experience and theirs Bevertheless, instead of repudiating this instinct, or pretending that it does not exist, it may be more productive to ac$no#ledge and harness such feelings #hile ensuring that they are tempered by an element of ob(ective distance Lne #ay to do this is to dra# a distinction bet#een simple identification and the more complex gesture of empathy Such is the vie# of Dominic$ 0a1apra, #ho argues that *empathic unsettlement+ C)riting >8D is necessary #hen approaching the ,olocaust from the position of outsider Empathy is a $ey term for 0a1apra, #ho defines it as *an affective relation, rapport, or bond #ith the other recogni4ed and respected as other+ C)riting 2=2.9D 'hile 0a1apra is chiefly concerned #ith the role of the historian, this chapter #ill develop his ideas to sho# ho# they may be productively applied to contemporary ,olocaust narratives % argue that the ethical and epistemological problems of identification may be resolved to an extent through #hat % call *transgenerational empathy+, an approach to the past that is self.reflexive, dra#s on ideas of time, memory and generations, and moves both to#ards and a#ay from the victims of the past in a simultaneous gesture of proximity and distance 5y approach also situates 0a1aprian empathy in the space opened up by 3adamer2s concept of the *fusion of hori4ons+ bet#een past and present %n later chapters % sho# ho# transgenerational empathy corresponds to an extent #ith the narrative strategies employed by ' 3 Sebald and 7onathan Safran /oer Empathy has a dual structure; it is the ability simultaneously to share and understand the feelings of another -s such, its modern meaning is entirely different from that of sympathy, #hich connotes feelings of pity or sorro# for another2s misfortune 0ater in this chapter, % trace the history of this distinction, as it helps explain the development of empathy in various discourses from the eighteenth century on#ards /irst, ho#ever, % #ish to ma$e a crucial distinction bet#een empathy and identification %n a very broad

<? sense, identification may be considered to correspond to the *shared feelings+ aspect of empathy, #hile lac$ing the other element of understanding %n psychoanalytic theory, identification refers to the process by #hich a patient may unconsciously incorporate attributes of another person into his or her personality, #hile in over.identification an excessive level of this incorporation leads to the denigration of the patient2s individuality or sub(ectivity %dentification, then, is best understood as a pathological condition or tendency #ith potentially undesirable results Cthough as #e #ill see, not everyone agrees that over.incorporation of the other is #rong or unhelpfulD %n the field of ,olocaust studies, particularly #here it intersects #ith trauma theory, identification has emerged as a ma(or issue -s 3eoffrey ,artman noted in =??<; *!he predicament Ffor those #ho consider the traumatic pastG is ho# to ac$no#ledge the passionate, suffering, affectional side of human nature #ithout sympathy turning into over.identification+ C*Ln !raumatic+ <:<D Such a transformation might occur, #arns ,artman, if one ma$es the mista$e of thin$ing about trauma as a universal experience related to loss of the 0acanian *real+ !his echoes 0a1apra2s #arning against conflating absence #ith loss, as described in my last chapter /or ,artman, such ideas can lead to *a temptation to politici4e the fact of trauma and to broaden, even universali4e, the perspective of victimhood+ C<:HD 6eyond the #arning to theorists of trauma, ,artman2s implication is clear; it is impermissible for non.victims to identify #ith victims, especially ,olocaust victims, #hose experience and suffering must not be sub(ected to comparison or relativi4ation ,olocaust historian 8aul ,ilberg, "uoting the title of a poem by Saren 3ershon, gives a more succinct version of this #arning; *% #as not there+ ,o#ever, there are degrees of not.there.ness ,artman and 3ershon are both survivors from the =indertrans ortA ,ilberg has spent his #or$ing life documenting and evaluating the extermination of European 7e#ry during the !hird 8eich !he point is that their relationship to the event is al#ays an issue, al#ays a consideration both for their #or$ing practice and for those #ho read and evaluate their output !he same goes, of course, for #riters and readers of fictional narratives of the ,olocaust Lne aim of this study is to sho# that the more successful authors of such narratives foreground their $no#ledge of and engagement #ith this and related issues in a self.reflexive mannerA indeed, this is a vital component of #hat % call transgenerational empathy

H0 Bevertheless, fiction arguably contains greater dangers of identification than, say, criticism or historiography !raditionally, identification #ith characters or situations has been seen as crucial to the success of a story, especially from the reader2s perspective ,o#ever, this represents a narro#ly realist vie# of fiction #hich is increasingly under challenge from more $no#ing forms of #riting, sometimes gathered under the heading *postmodern+ !hus the "uestion arises as to #hether such forms resolve the problem of identification and to #hat extent 8obert Eaglestone addresses this issue directly in The Holocaust and the Postmodern C200:D, arguing that #hile fiction cannot escape the problems associated #ith identification, testimonial accounts can and do ,e reaches this conclusion through a detailed debate about ethics and epistemology /irst, he asserts that postmodern thought may represent a solution to the problem of identification, insofar as it challenges the assumptions that lead to ethically dubious attitudes to the ,olocaust !hese assumptions include the *metaphysics of comprehension,+ #hich is *both the desire for and the methods by and through #hich 'estern thought, in many different #ays, comprehends, sei4es, or consumes #hat is other to it and so reduces the other to itself+ C:D %dentification is a $ey component of this process, as it *often leads to the Jconsumption2 and reduction of otherness, the assimilation of others2 experience into one2s o#n frame#or$s+ CHD %n the case of the ,olocaust, Eaglestone argues, identification represents an illicit attempt to comprehend the incomprehensible, a danger #hich arises each time #e are confronted #ith representations of the event; 'e #ho come after the ,olocaust and $no# about it only through representations are fre"uently and #ith authority told that it is incomprehensible ,o#ever, the representations seem to demand us to do exactly that, to comprehend it, to grasp the experience, to imagine the suffering, through identifying #ith those #ho suffered C=?D Eaglestone2s articulation of this dilemma reveals an interesting definition of identification ,e appears to conflate *comprehend+, *grasp+ and *imagine+ into a subset under the overall header of *identifying+ !his seems a rather limiting account of the available options for the reader -re imagining and comprehending inextricable) 5ust one imagine in order to comprehend) %n 1hapter : of the present study, % sho# ho# ' 3 Sebald2s narratives foreground this very problem of imagining, by

H= consciously limiting its extent and imposing layers of distance !his suggests that contemplation of the other need not al#ays lead to identification, #hich as % #ill sho# may be separated, to an extent, from comprehension through the application of a specific, distinctive notion of empathy Empathy2s simultaneous gesture of sharing and understanding the feelings of others $eeps the notions of identification and comprehension distinct, #hile also avoiding the necessity to choose bet#een one and the other Eaglestone, mean#hile, goes on to identify t#o issues that arise from the problem of identification and representation /irst, he asserts that it is not epistemologically or psychologically possible to $no# #hat it #as li$e for real ,olocaust victims or survivorsA and secondly, that the see$ing of such $no#ledge is Cor should beD ethically proscribed !his idea of *illicit comprehension+ C29D, ho#ever, seems to contain a contradiction or paradox; if comprehensionIidentification is impossible, #hy is it necessary to #arn against it) %f the attempt is futile, #hat harm can it do) /or Eaglestone, this amounts to the abstract ethical problem of *consumption+ of the other %t seems that people can and do attempt to identify #ith others2 suffering, and Eaglestone2s aim is to limit this by establishing boundaries !o further this aim, he defines *testimony+ as a genre, one #hich has advantages over others, especially fiction; 5any forms of prose #riting encourage identification and #hile testimony cannot but do this, it at the same time aims to prohibit identification, on epistemological grounds Ca reader really cannot become, or become identified #ith, the narrator of a testimony; any such identification is an illusionD and on ethical grounds Ca reader should not become identified #ith a narrator of a testimony, as it reduces and Jnormali4es2 or consumes the otherness of the narrator2s experience and the illusion that such an identification creates is possibly perniciousD C:2.9D Eaglestone2s assertion that *any such identification is an illusion+ raises the "uestion of the 'il$omirs$i affair -s % sho# in 1hapter 9 of the present study, 6in(amin 'il$omirs$i2s false memoir Fragments C=??<D came about in part through the author2s over.identification #ith real others2 testimonies, #hich he appropriated for himself, incorporating them into his o#n identity !hough this is an *illusion+, it appears that it

H2 is nevertheless very real to him Put another #ay; one can identify #ith a testifier or testimony if one #ants toA calling this an *illusion+ does not change one2s sub(ective experience !o say one *should not+ is another matter, and perhaps suggests that the real issue for Eaglestone is the problem of responsibility K a responsibility to#ards, for example, the ethical imperative to respect others2 suffering 6ut it is not entirely clear #here the responsibility lies Ln the one hand, Eaglestone argues that the testimonial form itself *re(ects the pleasures of identification+ C98D through its *gaps, shifts, brea$s, and ruptures+ C:=D, #hile on the other hand it appears that it is the #ay one a roaches testimony that resolves the problem; *!o read these texts as testimonies, to read the genre, is to refuse the identification+ C:0D 'ho has agency here K author or reader) Lr the text itself) Bot#ithstanding these unresolved issues, testimony is held up by Eaglestone as an ethically superior genre Bevertheless, he ac$no#ledges that it does not #holly re(ect identification; F G Jdoubleness2 is central to the genre of testimony; the texts lead to identification and a#ay from it simultaneously !his stress bet#een centrifugal and centripetal forces is played out, but not resolved, in the texts of testimonies and it is this that characterises the genre of testimony C:9D /or Eaglestone this *stress+ can only exist in testimony, not fiction, because *the reading that fiction re"uires too often demands the sort of process of identification that Jconsumes2 the events+ C=92D Bovels, he argues, tend to encourage us to identify #ith ethically dubious sub(ect positions, such as perpetrator, passive victim, or bystander, leading to a *tension K bet#een the demand of fiction that #e identify and the demand of the ,olocaust that #e cannot and should not K that unbalances even the most subtle of F G novels+ C=92D Eaglestone2s opposition of the categories *fiction+ and *testimony+ appears to elide the possibility that fictionali4ation is present in all forms of #riting, including Cperhaps especiallyD autobiographical forms 5oreover, his argument implicitly discounts the possibility of narratives that sit some#here +et#een fiction and testimony %n my chapters on Sebald and /oer, % sho# ho# certain contemporary ,olocaust narratives may be put into this category, and ho# they enact, through transgenerational empathy, something a$in to Eaglestone2s *doubleness+, through a simultaneous action of proximity and distance %ndeed, the characteristics of testimony

H9 that Eaglestone describes, such as *interruptions+ to a past narrative by a narrator in the present, or *disruptions in F G chronology+, are characteristic of contemporary literature in general, ma$ing the distinction bet#een genres even harder to sustain ,o#ever, Eaglestone adds a further component to his genre of testimony ,e argues that it is distinguished by *an existential uncovering or revelation+ in the form of a *trace+, #hich is *the grounds for that #hich refuses comprehension Chere, through identificationD; it is the trace of incomprehensible other, the #itness+ C>0D !hrough this idea Eaglestone see$s to resolve a paradox, namely that of the critic CEaglestoneD #ho ma$es a gesture of comprehension Cthrough #ritingD to#ards that #hich he has named as incomprehensible Cthe ,olocaustD !hus Eaglestone engages #ith the contradiction inherent in the search for the truth of a past #hich is simultaneously defined as beyond reach -s % sho#ed in my last chapter, this contradiction is at the heart of trauma theory, and has been critici4ed as tending to#ards sublimation %ndeed, Eaglestone2s characterisation of testimony as *revelation+ echoes 7enny Ed$ins2 valorisation of the traumatic moment as the catalyst for political action !hough their meaning of the term is different, both parta$e of a discourse #hich appears to gesture to#ards #hat 0a1apra has called *the tendency to sacrali4e trauma or to convert it into a founding or sublime event+ CHistory in Transit =29D ,olocaust and trauma studies, then, coincide in Eaglestone2s analysis of the problem of identification 6ut this does not mean that all approaches grounded in those fields #ill reach the same conclusion Ernst van -lphen2s thesis in Caught +y History: Holocaust Effects in Contem orary Art, Literature, and Theory C=??>D represents the ethical reverse to Eaglestone2s position, arguing in favour of all $inds of identification #ith ,olocaust participants, even perpetrators @an -lphen begins by asserting that figurative, imaginative art#or$s are more useful than historical or factual accounts for representing the ,olocaust, as they can enable #hat he calls *,olocaust effects+ Dra#ing on trauma studies and speech.act theory, he suggests that these performative *reenactments+ Cpresentations, not re.presentationsD enable the audience to *$eep in touch+ #ith the past in an unmediated manner *'hen % call something a ,olocaust effect, % mean to say that #e are not confronted #ith a representation of the ,olocaust, but that #e, as vie#ers or readers, experience directly a certain aspect of the ,olocaust or of Ba4ism, of that #hich led to the ,olocaust+ C=0D !hat this is a species of

H: identification is clear from van -lphen2s introductory remar$s, in #hich he loo$s bac$ to his schooldays in =?H0s ,olland; F G #ar and ,olocaust narratives #ere dull to me, almost dulled me, as a young child because they #ere told in such a #ay that % #as not allo#ed to have my o#n response to them 5y response, in other #ords, #as already culturally prescribed or narratively programmed /leeting, idiosyncratic identifications % might have #ith perpetrators instead of #ith victims #ere prohibited by the official framings, hence #ere impossible !he narration of this past had no ambiguitiesA moral positions #ere fixed C2D !hus van -lphen values the process of identification #ith morally dubious sub(ect positions for its potentially productive effect rather than allo#ing its proscription by ethical imperatives, in a direct contradiction of Eaglestone2s attempt to limit such moves through criticism of fictional narrative % #ould argue that neither extreme is the best #ay to approach ,olocaust representation, and that transgenerational empathy may represent a middle ground that avoids the presumption of *reexperiencing+ someone else2s past #hile nevertheless ac$no#ledging Cand temperingD such desires to commune #ith the dead !he contention that one should actively see$ to identify #ith ,olocaust participants, rather than avoid or ignore such attachments, forms the sub(ect of Emily Prager2s Eve6s Tattoo C=??2D %n this intriguing novel, forty.year.old Be# Eor$ (ournalist Eve gets the camp number of an anonymous -usch#it4 inmate tattooed on her arm Eve calls this #oman *Eva+, embracing her as an alter.ego She #ants to memoriali4e the un$no#n victim by celebrating her life rather than her death, and ta$e the #oman into the t#enty. first century by literally embodying her in the present Each time one of her friends as$s about the tattoo she invents a different life history of Eva !hese biographies are composites based on Eve2s extensive reading of ,olocaust #itness accounts and, especially, testimonies from #omen in =?90s 3ermany %ndeed, Eve2s strange pro(ect of identification has a strong feminist agendaA she even compares -ryan brutality to more general notions of male abuse to#ards #omen 5any of the *Evas+, the sub(ects of her invented biographies, try to resist Ba4i persecution but all fail and, in her stories, eventually become the -usch#it4 victim of the photograph

H< -fter her first improvised life history, Eve is pleased #ith the reaction of her usually frivolous friends; Everyone had identified /or a fe# minutes the tattoo had (olted them from the lethe of middle.class life and they suddenly loo$ed not sophisticated or cynical, not fed up or bored, not played.out or #ired, (ust human, exposed, their expressions softened #ith an empathy they #ould never have ac$no#ledged that they could feel C2?D !his passage is notable for its conflation of identification #ith empathy, a common confusion #hich % explore later in this chapter %t also alleges that identification is an antidote to ignorance Eve herself embar$s on her bi4arre episode after finding out for the first time that the ,olocaust did not only target 7e#s, and that the first victims of gas chambers #ere mental patients !his *one little fact opened doors in Eve2s mind that led her to getting the tattoo Doors of identification, doors of terror, doors that led to rooms of "uestions she had never thought to as$, from perspectives she had never considered+ C9=D !hus the brea$ing do#n of religious and ethnic barriers is figured as helping identification and thus understanding, #hich, as in Eaglestone2s account, appear to be conflated by Eve ,o#ever, the issue is complicated by Eve2s lover 1harles, #ho reacts violently to the tattoo ,e turns out to be a /renchman #hose parents collaborated #ith the occupying 3erman forces during the #ar, and it is only #hen Eve2s tattoo is removed in a frea$ accident that they are reconciled !hus #hile Eve and her friends, #ho have no personal connection to the ,olocaust, are alleged to benefit from her identificatory fantasies, 1harles, a man #ith painful family secrets, refuses to (oin in the pro(ect Eve2s attempts to ma$e him *understand+ by explaining the facts she gleans from ,olocaust literature fall on deaf ears !hus Prager subtly undermines the assertion of her heroine that all identification is of positive value Prager2s novel, #hich is deadpan in tone, satiri4es the urge to identify experienced by those #ho spend too much time reading ,olocaust accounts and narratives %t also highlights the #ay identification is not limited to psychological or affective responses !he body2s instinctive reaction to representations of others2 CpainfulD experience, #hich in Prager2s novel is allegori4ed as deliberate self.mutilation, is itself a species of identification that can be considered a useful aid to understanding Such corporeal concerns underlie a startling thesis put for#ard by -lison 0andsberg %n the context of

HH the need to find ne# #ays of preserving ,olocaust memory no# that the last survivors are dying off, 0andsberg as$s; *is it possible for the ,olocaust to become a bodily memory for those #ho have not lived through it)+ CHHD !he ans#er for 0andsberg is yes, by #ay of *an alternative living memory+ she labels *prosthetic+; Prosthetic memories are memories that circulate publicly, are not organically based, but are nevertheless experienced #ith one2s o#n body K by means of a #ide range of cultural technologies K and as such, become part of one2s personal archive of experience, informing not only one2s sub(ectivity, but one2s relationship to the present and future tenses % call these memories prosthetic, in part, because, li$e an artificial limb, they are actually #orn by the bodyA these are sensuous memories produced by experience CHHD 0andsberg #ants to activate these memories for the public good She *ma$eFsG the claim that affective po#er might be mobili4ed to have a similar $ind of political potential as conceptual po#er+ CHHDA that is, she sees a practical utility in the promotion of certain modes of experience 5useums in #hich one interacts #ith exhibits *might actually install in us Fthrough transferenceG Jsymptoms2 or prosthetic memories through #hich #e didn2t actually live, but F#ithG #hich #e no# F G have a $ind of experiential relationship+ C82D ,o#ever, there are problems #ith this approach @isiting the United States ,olocaust 5emorial 5useum, 0andsberg reports feelings of physical distress induced by its experiential element !hen, seeing smo$e, she has a sudden fantasy that she might herself be about to be gassed, leading to a visceral feeling of helplessness !his moment is argued to be helpful to#ards gaining understanding of the ,olocaust; !o experience, if only for a flash, the #ay it feels to have your personhood or agency stripped a#ay, may be the grounds for understanding or for having empathy for something totally other and cognitively unimaginable Perhaps the experience of vulnerability might itself be a form of $no#ledge about the ,olocaust C8<D !he first ob(ection to this proposal #ould be to as$ #hat value there is in a comparison bet#een a minor moment of fear in a modern democracy and the experience of persecution, terror and torture at the hands of a genocidal fascist organisation 5oreover, the smo$e seen by 0andsberg #as not intended as part of the museal experience, but #as in fact a technical fault %t could have happened any#here, for example on a sub#ay net#or$, so it is difficult to see #hat relation it has to the

H> ,olocaust as such !hough 0andsberg describes the experience as one of *empathy+, its misguided character ma$es it seem more li$e an irrational and overdetermined moment of identification %ndeed, the example is surprising, because 0andsberg earlier gives a usefully nuanced description of #hat she means by empathy; 'hile sympathy F G relies upon an essentialism of identification, empathy recogni4es the alterity of identification Empathy, then, is about the lac$ of identity bet#een sub(ects, about negotiating distances Empathy F G is not emotional self.pitying identification #ith victims, but a #ay of both feeling for, #hile feeling different from, the sub(ect of en"uiry C82D 0andsberg2s definition of empathy, then, closely coincides #ith my o#n Cand 0a1apra2sD in its emphasis on maintaining the alterity of the other Eet her examples suggest that this is unli$ely to be achieved through extreme bodily identifications /urther investigation into the history of meanings of identification may help to explain #hy this is so 0a1apra2s definition of empathy offers a clue to this history 0a1apra has defined empathy as *a form of virtual, not vicarious, experience related to #hat Sa(a Silverman has termed hetero athic identification, in #hich emotional response comes #ith respect for the other and the reali4ation that the experience of the other is not one2s o#n+ C)riting :0D 6efore exploring 0a1apra2s ideas in detail, % #ish to follo# the tantalising trail he leaves regarding *heteropathic identification+, #hich leads bac$ through Sa(a Silverman to the early t#entieth century philosopher 5ax Scheler %n The Threshold of the <isi+le )orld C=??HD K the text 0a1apra cites K Silverman, a *psychoanalytic theorist+, is chiefly concerned #ith ho# visual artifacts can enable productive identification #ith *culturally dispri4ed+ C2D others !his aim depends on a sharp distinction; *%t is crucial that this identification conform to an externali4ing rather than internali4ing logic K that #e identify excorporatively rather than incorporatively, and, thereby, respect the otherness of the ne#ly illuminated bodies+ C2D Silverman explains that the *incorporative+ mode corresponds to #hat /reud meant by identification, *the process #hereby the other is interiori4ed as the self+ Cas in, for example, melancholiaD %n *excorporative+ identification, in contrast, *the sub(ect identifies at a distance from his or her proprioceptive self+ C29D !his argument rests on

H8 an opposition, ta$en from the #or$ of ,enri 'allon, bet#een the formation of *exteroceptive+ and *proprioceptive+ ego.states 8eferring to infant psychological development, exteroceptive corresponds to the visual imago, or 0acan2s *mirror stage+, #hich leads to one2s sense of identity !he proprioceptive stage, mean#hile, is a non. visual, physical sense of one2s *o#n.ness+ that enables one to perceive exteriority 0i$e 0andsberg, Silverman emphasises an important corporeal element to identification /or Silverman, the ego and the body are tightly bound together; *!he sensational ego is at the same time psychic and corporeal+ C=>D -s the sensational and proprioceptive ego are one and the same for Silverman, it follo#s that it is through the +ody that she thin$s one can achieve an identification that both preserves the other2s exteriority and enables us to enter that exteriority /or Silverman, it is *imperative that #e learn to ideali4e outside the corporeal parameters of the self F G to do so #ould be to ma$e possible our identification at a distance #ith bodies #hich #e #ould other#ise phobically avoid+ C9>D She gives an example of trying to overcome feelings of disgust for tramps in her street, ac$no#ledging that there is a strong element of #hite middle.class guilt informing her thesis Silverman2s central opposition bet#een interior and exterior modes of identification is theori4ed through the terms *idiopathic+ and *heteropathic+, coined by the early t#entieth.century social philosopher 5ax Scheler Silverman first used these terms in her earlier boo$ !ale &u+1ectivity at the !argins C=??2D, in #hich idiopathic is broadly aligned #ith sadism and heteropathic #ith masochism %n The Threshold of the <isi+le )orld, as #e have seen, Silverman activates the term heteropathic in relation to a radical and politici4ed frame#or$ of excorporative identification *,eteropathic identification+ is beginning to loo$ far removed from 0andsberg or 0a1apra2s definitions of empathy, and this is not surprising #hen Scheler2s ideas are examined in detail %n The $ature of &ym athy C=?29D, the text from #hich Silverman liberally "uotes, Scheler pointedly re(ects empathy in the form that he understood it Defined as *feeling.into+, Scheler argues that empathy presumes that $no#ledge of the self precedes and is more fundamental than $no#ledge of others /or Scheler, the opposite is the case; #e begin our lives in a universal environment of feelings before differentiating ourselves and realising our selfhood !hus #e can use our *intuition+ to

H? go bac$ to this time and dra# upon a *universal grammar+ C==D of feeling, and so achieve love for our fello# humans Scheler goes on to produce a $ind of taxonomy of feelings for others ,e ma$es a distinction bet#een *vicariously visualised feeling and artici ation in feeling+ C=:D !he experience felt in cro#ds or (olly public houses is a *FmGere emotional infection+ C=2D #hich has nothing to do #ith real fello#.feelingA in these situations one is not sharing others2 (oy, but merely cheering oneself up %ncluded #ithin this category is *emotional identification+, #hich is *only a heightened form, a limiting case as it #ere, of infection+ C=8D ,ere Scheler cites an example, given by !heodor 0ipps, of *aesthetic empathy+ in #hich a spectator becomes at *one #ith+ an acrobat at the circus !his, though, represents only a partial identification for Scheler, #ho goes on; !here are other cases, ho#ever, F G in #hich such identification is undoubtedly completeA #hich do not merely exemplify a moment of true Jecstasy2, but may be of long duration, and can even become habitual throughout #hole phases of life !hey are of t#o opposite $inds; the idio athic and the hetero athic !hus identification can come about in one #ay through the total eclipse and absorption of another self by one2s o#n, it being thus, as it #ere, completely dispossessed and deprived of all rights in its conscious existence and character %t can also come about the other #ay, #here J%2 Cthe formal sub(ectD am so over#helmed and hypnotically bound and fettered by the other J%2 Cthe concrete individualD, that my formal status as a sub(ect is usurped by the other2s personality, #ith all its characteristic aspectsA in such a case, % live, not in Jmyself2, but entirely in Jhim2, the other person K Cin and through him, as it #ereD C=8.=?, emphasis in originalD ,eteropathic identification, then, is for Scheler an exotic and extreme psychological oddity, a mere sub.category of *infection+ !he examples he gives are mostly dra#n from ancient times or primitive societies, including the case of religious mystics #ho identify #ith the godhead to the extent that they believe themselves to +ecome that god Scheler2s vie# of empathy, mean#hile, is once again evident #hen he describes ho# this example of the *mysteries of antiBuity+ continues in a #atered.do#n form as theatre; *,ere, at last, the ecstatic identification is reduced to the level of mere symbolic em athy+ C20, emphasis in originalD Such distinctions, #hen considered alongside Scheler2s formulations Cadopted by SilvermanD of being *bound and fettered+ and living *entirely in F G the other person+, suggest that the concept of heteropathic identification is far removed from the notion of empathy intended by 0a1apra !o live

>0 entirely subsumed #ithin another surely destroys the distance bet#een self and other that distinguishes his version of empathy from simple identification ,o#ever, #hen one considers the vexed and confused history of the term empathy, it is perhaps not surprising that such anomalies should occur Em athy is as much bound up #ith sym athy as #ith notions of identification %n modern parlance, empathy is the ability to both understand and share the feelings of another, #hile sympathy denotes feelings of pity or sorro# for another2s misfortune ,o#ever, though the #ord em athy #as not coined until =?0?, similar ideas circulated up to t#o hundred years earlier under the heading of sympathy -s 7onathan 0amb explains in a recent article, sympathy in eighteenth.century discourse brea$s do#n into *four degrees of li$eness K resemblance, e"uality, metaphor and identity+ C=>9D %n the first degree, *sympathy is occasioned by physiological similarities close enough for us to recogni4e the symptoms of our o#n emotions in others+ C=>=D %n the second, as in the #or$ of philosopher /rancis ,utcheson, this reali4ation of others2 similarity to us raises moral "uestions about their rights and *the duties #e o#e them+ C=>=D !he third is *a more obli"ue degree of resemblance that is brought home to the heart by means of imaginative or figurative expressions+ C=>=DA such ideas are traced bac$ to -dam Smith2s The Theory of !oral &entiments C=><?D %t is the final degree, ho#ever, that prefigures later ideas of empathyA indeed, in order to explain this fourth category, 0amb reaches for the later term; *-nd finally there is obliteration of all differences in a species of empathy that proclaims the identity of the sub(ect and the ob(ect+ C=>=D -s 0amb points out, this #as the meaning of sympathy for Edmund 6ur$e, #ho #rote in A Philoso hical EnBuiry into the 7rigin of our Ideas of the &u+lime and "eautiful C=><>D that *sympathy must be considered as a sort of substitution, by #hich #e are put into the place of another man+ C>0D %n the late nineteenth and early t#entieth centuries, similar ideas #ere ta$en up by aesthetic theorists, but instead of su+stitution they considered it in terms of ro1ection !he 3erman term EinfChlung C*feeling.into+D #as first used by 8obert @ischer in his doctoral thesis of =8>9, and #as ta$en up by fello# philosopher !heodor 0ipps 0ipps2 #or$ in turn #as evangeli4ed, populari4ed, and reinterpreted for English readers by the essayist and novelist @ernon 0ee !hough 0ee introduced EinfChlung to an English. spea$ing audience, it #as in fact the psychologist Ed#ard !itchener #ho first translated

>= it, thus coining the English #ord *empathy+ > %ndeed, the concept2s cross.fertili4ation #ith the emerging field of psychology is confirmed by /reud2s use of EinfChlung in *7o$es and their 8elation to the Unconscious+ C=?0<D, in #hich he *vie#s it as the process that allo#s us to understand others by putting ourselves in their place+ CPigman 29>D !his is consistent #ith the term2s etymology, as 0ee explains in "eauty and :gliness C=?=2D; !his #ord, made up of fChlen, to feel, and ein Cherein, hineinD, in, into, con(ugated Csich einfChlenD #ith the pronoun denoting the reflective mode K this #ord EinfChlung has existed in 3erman aesthetics ever since @ischer and 0ot4e F G &ich einfChlen, to trans ort oneself into something in feeling F G has in ordinary 3erman the meaning of utting oneself in the lace of some one, of imagining, of e, eriencing, the feelings of some one or something C:H, emphasis in originalD 0ee interprets this idea of putting oneself in the place of others in relation to aesthetic appreciation -sserting the lin$ bet#een the aesthetic and the beautiful, 0ee see$s to explain #hy it is the aesthetic and not the artistic sense by #hich #e (udge #hat is beautiful in art !o do this she posits a process of *aesthetic empathy+, #hich is the *pro(ection of our o#n dynamical and emotional experience into the seen form+ C2?D, or as Peter 3unn elaborates in his boo$ on 0ee, *the pro(ection of our states of consciousness of our o#n organism into the ob(ect #hose perception has aroused those states of consciousness+ C=<8D !his is *analogous to F G moral sympathy+ C0ee 20D, as in fello#.feeling for a bereaved neighbour, in that it dra#s on self.$no#ledge %n the case of art, ho#ever, the process of aesthetic empathy involves a connection bet#een the form of the #or$ and our inner impulses -ccording to this theory, the extent to #hich aesthetic empathy results in pleasure or satisfaction is the extent to #hich the art#or$ may be called beautiful -lthough such aesthetic theories have been largely superseded by modernist and postmodernist thought, ideas of empathy have become highly influential in other fields 0ater in the t#entieth century, it became a core concept for 1arl 8ogers and 8 D 0aing as they developed more open, patient.oriented forms of psychotherapy %t is still the sub(ect of much psychological and neurological research, especially into its relation to altruism and *prosocial action+ Cbehaviour that promotes social acceptance and
>

0ee cites !itchener2s Psychology of Thought Processes C5ac5illan =?0?D, p 2=

>2 friendshipD 8 %deas of empathy have also been crucial to a certain strand of social philosophy %n the early t#entieth century, the concept of <erstehen #as developed as a sociological method of understanding #hich promoted the use of empathy over ob(ective observation or causal analysis %n :nderstanding &ocial Life: The !ethod called <erstehen C=?><D, 'illiam Luth#aite explains that this concept #as developed in response to the prevailing intellectual climate of positivism, and also had roots in the branch of historical in"uiry that see$s to understand the actions of people in the past Luth#aite cites the historian 7ohann 3ustav Droysen C=898.=?08D, #ho *established the crucial connection bet#een the theory of understanding and the philosophy of history from #hich the idea of a verstehende social science eventually gre#+ C29D Droysen argued; !he possibility of understanding rests in our familiarity #ith the expressions #hich are present as historical materials F G -n expression pro(ects itself into the person #ho perceives it and excites the same inner process 'hen #e hear a cry of anguish, #e experience the anguish of the person #ho uttered it C"td in Luth#aite 2=D? Luth#aite is $een to sho# that reliance on this $ind of experience #as soon re(ected in the development of the <erstehen concept ,e ma$es a distinction bet#een *hermeneutic+ and *psychological+ understanding 'hile the latter relies on trying someho# to experience the feelings of another, hermeneutic or interpretative understanding, for Luth#aite, is based around $no#ledge of the conte,t surrounding a human action; F G #hen #e say #e understand someone2s disappointment, anger etc , or his motives for a certain action, #e mean not that #e $no# #hat it is to feel these emotions or the force of certain motives F G, but rather that #e understand the Jsituation2 in #hich these emotions or intentions Jma$e sense2 %t is this sort of understanding, presupposing a certain community of outloo$, #hich % have called hermeneutic C=<.=HD Luth#aite argues that this distinction is played out in the development of the @erstehen concept, #hich he attributes mainly to the 3erman historian and philosopher 'ilhelm Dilthey Luth#aite says that Dilthey had t#o phases in his #or$ Lriginally, Dilthey
8 ?

See Su4anne Seen2s survey of recent scientific literature in Em athy and the $ovel pp 9.9< Luth#aite gives the original source as 7 3 Droysen, (rundriss der Histori- C,alle.Saale, Biemeyer, =?2<D, para ?

>9 #as interested in experiencing others2 *thoughts and emotions from the inside by *putting oneself in their shoes+ Csich hineinversetzenD and reliving their experiences Cnacherle+enD+ C2>D 0ater in his career, ho#ever, Dilthey2s *emphasis shifts from the empathetic penetration or reconstruction of other people2s mental processes to the hermeneutic interpretation of cultural products and conceptual structures+ C2HD, thus apparently re(ecting the psychological or *empathetic+ aspect of the method Eet current definitions of <erstehen continue to emphasi4e this latter component /or example, the 7,ford .ictionary of Philoso hy describes <erstehen as follo#s; *understanding a human expression is a matter of $no#ing #hat in oneself #ould gain expression that #ay, and Jreliving2 by a process of empathy the mental life of the person to be understood+ !here is also a modern development of <erstehen, *simulation theory+, defined in the same dictionary as follo#s; *Understanding others is achieved #hen #e can ourselves deliberate as they did, and hear their #ords as if they are our o#n+ 3iven this continuation of the empathic aspect in <erstehen and its derivatives, Luth#aite2s determined emphasis on interpretative and contextual elements is perhaps best seen in terms of the tendency to conflate empathy #ith the problematic pathological category of identification -s sho#n above in the #or$ of 8obert Eaglestone, the term identification can be used pe(oratively to signify the delusional or morally dubious nature of claims to really feel as others feel Luth#aite, arguing for the relevance of <erstehen to contemporary sociology, is understandably reluctant to associate it #ith such discourse Bevertheless, the problem remains, and attempts to evo$e empathy, #hether by sociologists, novelists, or historians, are inevitable, and as such should perhaps be considered in terms of their potential value rather than proscription % #ould suggest that this can only be achieved through a nuanced definition of empathy, in #hich its distinction from identification or sympathy is highlighted by emphasising the crucial component of understanding alongside affect %n Trauma Culture: The Politics of Terror and Loss in !edia and Literature C200<D, E -nn Saplan alludes to this problem in her criticism of the typical response to television ne#s reports of atrocities in places li$e 8#anda and %ra" She labels the vie#ers2 attitude *empty empathy+, or *empathy elicited by images of suffering provided #ithout any context or bac$ground $no#ledge+ C?9D 1ontext, $no#ledge, understanding, comprehension K all these terms suggest the importance of hermeneutical philosophy to

>: the problem of empathy ,ans.3eorg 3adamer2s application of hermeneutics to the philosophy of historical understanding may therefore be a productive area to explore Unli$e Droysen2s rather simplistic vie# that #hen reading historical accounts one can directly experience another2s *anguish+, 3adamer offers a nuanced account of our relationship #ith the past, arguing that understanding can only be achieved through #hat he calls a *fusion of hori4ons+ %n )ahrheit und !ethode C=?H0A translated in =?>< as Truth and !ethodD, 3adamer insists that #e can only understand the past in the light of the present, and only understand the present in the light of the past *!here is no more an isolated hori4on of the present in itself that there are historical hori4ons #hich have to be ac"uired %ather, understanding is al#ays the fusion of these horizons su osedly e,isting +y themselves+ C90H, emphasis in originalD 'e arise from history, #hich shapes both the #ay #e are no# and the #ay #e address the past -s this is inescapable, a#areness of it is desirableA 3adamer calls this a#areness )ir-ungsgeschichtliches "e#uDtsein Chistorically effected consciousnessD 'e are *al#ays already affected by history+ C900D ,istorically effected consciousness is the a#areness of the hermeneutical *situation+, from #hich #e can never escape or step outside Situations necessarily limit our hori4ons, #hich are finite, but can nevertheless be expanded ,istorical understanding sometimes claims to *see the past in its o#n terms, not in terms of our contemporary criteria and pre(udices but #ithin its o#n historical hori4on+ C902.9D 6ut this is not a *true conversation+ C909DA it is one.sided, as in a meeting bet#een doctor and patient %f #e deny our o#n perspective *#e have given up the claim to find in the past any truth that is valid and intelligible for ourselves+ C909D 3adamer2s *hori4ons+, then, are my $no#ledge and the $no#ledge presented to me in, say, a historical text !o achieve understanding % must expand my hori4on beyond my limited purvie#, yet #ithout leaving it behind !he space of this expansion is the universal, that #hich is beyond both my hori4on and the hori4on of the historical text and #hich includes them both 'ithin this space, the hori4ons are constantly shifting, expanding and contracting 3adamer2s account, then, moves us a#ay from the presumption that it is only through identification that one can understand the other %nstead he tal$s of *transposing ourselves+ #ithin an overall frame#or$ of hori4ons; *!ransposing ourselves consists neither in the empathy of one individual for another nor in subordinating another person

>< to our o#n standardsA rather, it al#ays involves rising to a higher universality that overcomes not only our o#n particularity but also that of the other+ C90<D %t is this space, #here self and other may be apprehended as it #ere from a third vantage point, that % #ant to invo$e in order to enable a ne#, more expansive definition of empathy !hough 3adamer, in the "uotation above, seems to ta$e a narro# vie# of empathy, re(ecting it in favour of *transposition+, % contend that his concept of the *fusion of hori4ons+ may help enable an empathic space in #hich proximity and distance, identification and ob(ectivity, can co.exist simultaneously #ithout pre(udice to each other !his balance is #hat 0a1apra seems to demand of empathy 0a1apra2s ideas on this sub(ect have developed through his boo$s %e resenting the Holocaust: History, Theory, Trauma C=??:D, History and !emory after Ausch#itz C=??8D, )riting History, )riting Trauma C200=D and History in Transit: E, erience, Identity, Critical Theory C200:D 0i$e 3adamer, 0a1apra ta$es a meta.historical approach that emphasi4es *one2s o#n implication in the problems one treats+ CHistory and !emory 8D ,o#ever, for 0a1apra this is figured through a psychoanalytic frame#or$ ,e urges an approach to historiography #hich ac$no#ledges *the implication of the observer in the observed, #hat in psychoanalytic terms is treated as transference+ C)riting 9HD 0a1apra2s use of psychoanalytic terms is rather different from that of, say, Sa(a Silverman ,is approach *selectively appropriates aspects of the #or$ of /reud and of those responding to him in #ays % (udge to be fruitful for reconfiguring historical understanding as a process that re"uires a critical exchange #ith the past bearing on the present and future+ CHistory and !emory HD !he $ey terms he lifts from /reud are *acting.out+ and *#or$ing. through+, #hich, broadly aligned #ith *melancholia+ and *mourning+, he sees not oppositionally but as t#o sides of the same coin 'or$ing.through #ill often necessarily contain vestiges of acting.outA both are forms of repetition, but #hile the former remains fixated on the past, the latter concentrates on the present and future !hus 0a1apra focuses on ethico.political concerns such as (ustice, vengeance, mourning the dead, and the possible liability of perpetrators2 descendants ,e even hopes that his #or$ #ill enable *the elaboration of more desirable social and political institutions and practices+ C)riting 8<D /or 0a1apra, it is not enough to passively rememberA ethically. focused action is needed 5emory in his #riting is thus a transitive concept, and a $ey component of #or$ing.through 0a1apra2s #or$ implicitly re(ects any opposition

>H bet#een memory and history, instead asserting that the #or$ of historians, and others #ho #rite about the past, must al#ays include aspects of memory 5emory implies affect and sub(ectivity, and it is in this area that 0a1apra2s notion of empathy ma$es its appearance 0a1apra argues that it is mista$en for historians to re(ect affectivity in favour of a #holly ob(ective approach 0i$e 3adamer, he $no#s this to be self.deluding !he "uestion is ho# best to activate one2s emotional response in the service of useful understanding; Empathy F G involves affectivity as a crucial aspect of understanding in the historian or other observer or analyst -s in trauma, numbing Cob(ectification and splitting of ob(ect from sub(ect, including self.as.sub(ect from self.as. ob(ectD may function for the historian as a protective shield or preservative against unproblematic identification #ith the experience of others and the possibility of being traumati4ed by it 6ut ob(ectivity should not be identified #ith ob(ectivism or exclusive ob(ectification that denies or forecloses empathy, (ust as empathy should not be conflated #ith unchec$ed identification, vicarious experience, and surrogate victimage Lb(ectivity re"uires chec$s and resistances to full identification, and this is one important function of meticulous research, contextuali4ation, and the attempt to be as attentive as possible to the voices of others #hose alterity is recognised Empathy in this sense is a form of virtual, not vicarious, experience F G in #hich emotional response comes #ith respect for the other and the reali4ation that the experience of the other is not one2s o#n C)riting :0D 0a1apra2s analysis of the problem of ob(ectivity echoes Edith 'yschogrod2s notion of the *heterological historian+ in her boo$ An Ethics of %emem+ering C=??8D; *!he heterological historian is driven, on the one hand, by an impassioned necrophilia #hich #ould bring to life the dead others for #hom she spea$s Ln the other hand, as *ob(ective+, she consciously or other#ise assume responsibility for a dispassionate relation to events+ C9D 6ut 0a1apra goes further by defining this problem in terms of empathy ,e separates empathy from similar concepts, carefully distancing himself from the problems of identification; Empathy, as % have construed the term, is to be disengaged from its traditional insertion in a binary logic of identity and difference %n terms of this "uestionable logic, empathy is mista$enly conflated #ith identification or fusion #ith the otherA it is opposed to sympathy implying difference from the discrete

>> other #ho is the ob(ect of pity, charity, or condescension %n contradistinction to this entire frame of reference, empathy should rather be understood in terms of an affective relation, rapport, or bond #ith the other recogni4ed and respected as other C)riting 2=2.9D Empathy is to be activated through a process of *empathic unsettlement+, #hich is *a $ind of virtual experience through #hich one puts oneself in the other2s position #hile recogni4ing the difference of that position and hence not ta$ing the other2s place+ C)riting >8D %ts goal is *better self.understanding and F G a sensitivity or openness to responses that generateFsG necessary tensions in one2s account+ C)riting =0<D !hese definitions sho# that 0a1aprian empathy is essentially self.reflexive %n his later boo$ History in Transit, 0a1apra moves on from describing the desired position of the #riter to closer attention to the text or artifact, in #hich again the most valued "uality is self.reflexivity ,e develops the concept of *situational transcendence+, an approach to events li$e the ,olocaust that is inherently self."uestioning and not caught up #ith the *symptomatic+ 0a1apra argues that symptomatic artifacts, such as racist tracts, contain nothing that invites criti"ue or debate 6y contrast, more critical and self.critical artifacts or phenomena signal or even foreground Cho#ever subtlyD their o#n symptomatic dimensions and engage processes that offer perspective on these dimensions and may provide the #here#ithal for their criti"ue, at times indicating transformative possibilities !he latter possibilities could be termed situationally transcendent in that they #or$ Cor playD #ith and through problems Cincluding those transmitted from the pastD and do not leap beyond them in some unmediated rupture CHistory in Transit =0D !hough mostly concerned #ith historiography and critical theory, 0a1apra ac$no#ledges that literature too may contain these elements of empathic self.reflexivity and thereby contribute to our understanding of the past !hough, li$e Eaglestone, he re(ects fiction about ,olocaust perpetrators on the grounds that it may lead to *a confused sense of identification #ith or involvement in certain figures and their beliefs or actions in a manner that may #ell subvert (udgment+ C)riting 209D, he also argues that the relative freedom of art and literature to experiment may be productive; *!he problem that clearly deserves further reflection is the nature of actual and desirable responses in different genres, practices, and disciplines, including the status of mixed or hybridi4ed genres and the possibility of playing different roles or exploring different

>8 approaches in a given text+ C)riting ==0D % argue that the #or$s of #riters li$e Sebald and /oer constitute precisely *mixed or hybridi4ed genres+ in that they combine fiction, Cauto.Dbiography and history, and, moreover, that they include the element of self. reflexivity #hich as #e have seen is crucial to a productive notion of empathy %n particular, the texts % analyse in later chapters foreground their engagement #ith the problems of ho# to approach the past by inserting a version of themselves into their narratives in the form of a persona C*playing different roles+D !hese personae are in a sense a manifestation in fiction of 3adamer2s *historically effected consciousness+ in that they foreground the importance of the observer in the observed, the perspective of the present on the past -s later chapters #ill sho#, the insertion of ambiguous personae bet#een author and sub(ect helps enable an approach to the past in #hich proximity Csub(ectivity, identificationD and distance Cob(ectivity, critical understandingD occur simultaneously in a complex gesture of empathy 6ecause this gesture is achieved through narrative forms, the term *narrative empathy+ suggests itself ,o#ever, this is both insufficient and potentially misleading %ndeed, the phrase has been used recently to describe a "uite different phenomenon; the lin$ bet#een empathy and altruism in relation to reading %n Em athy and the $ovel C200>D, Su4anne Seen as$s #hether the act of reading fiction boosts our empathic response and leads to prosocial, altruistic actions in the real #orld !hough Seen is sceptical about such claims, they generate an interesting en"uiry into #hat happens #hen #e read, and the relationships bet#een reader, author and text /or Seen, the theory of affect, as in, for example, readers2 identification #ith characters, is a neglected area of en"uiry Cthough she cites a gro#ing body of #or$ in the area of *cognitive literary studies+D Seen is interested in the unsophisticated responses of *ordinary readers+, #hose perspective she regards as too often ignored !his may underlie her conception of empathy as an almost involuntary phenomenon; *!hroughout this boo$ % distinguish the spontaneous, responsive sharing of an appropriate feeling as em athy, and the more complex, differentiated feeling for another as sym athy Csometimes called em athic concern in psychological literature+ C:D !his is very different from the idea of empathy developed in the hermeneutical and historical tradition, #hich % am adopting, in #hich empathy is distinguished from identification precisely through its complex mingling of cognitive understanding #ith shared feeling %n this frame of reference, the *spontaneous, responsive sharing of an appropriate feeling+ #ould be more li$ely to be

>? considered simply as identification, #hile sympathy #ould be regarded as more straightfor#ard than empathy !he difference in approach to the topic of empathy in literature bet#een Seen2s thesis and the present study is also highlighted by her interpretation of psychology and neurology Dra#ing on scientific research, Seen notes that empathy is commonly considered a culturally pri4ed trait She cites the #or$ of 5artin ,offman, #ho argues that through education, empathy can become prosocial and altruistic ,o#ever, others contend that empathy can (ust as easily lead to bad outcomes, immoral actions, or even the impediment of (ustice by obscuring the common good Seen also cites research suggesting that factors other than reading are more important for enabling prosocial actions or for the creation of an altruistic personality, including education, religion, politics, upbringing, environment, and especially the social attitude of egalitarianism !his #ould seem to marginali4e her pro(ect of investigating the impact of empathic novel.reading Bevertheless, Seen proposes to analyse #hat she calls *FtGhe position of the reader #ith respect to the author2s strategic empathi4ing in fictional #orld.ma$ing+ CxivD She identifies three levels of narrative empathy, *bounded+, *ambassadorial+ and *broadcast+, #hich correspond to feelings for the *in.group+, *chosen others+ and *every reader+ respectively CxivD !his theory of narrative empathy differs from my thesis in many respects, of #hich t#o are particularly important /irst, it concentrates more on the role of the reader than of the #riter Second, it leaves out the dimensions of time and memory Bovels li$e Sebald2s Austerlitz and /oer2s Everything is Illuminated are overtly concerned #ith the nature and conse"uences of memory, and the relationship bet#een the author in the present and the sub(ect in the past !hey reflect a #ider concern in contemporary society #ith memory and memorialisation, an obvious example being the proliferation of ,olocaust monuments and memorials !hey also reflect critical discourses such as trauma theory, #ith its emphasis on the belated effects of the past in the present, and memory studies, #ith its interest in explaining ho# people *remember+ events of previous generations %t is in these areas that the term *transgenerational+ has begun to ma$e an appearance /or example, in a list of $ey "uestions raised by the #or$ of Sebald, 0ong and

80 'hitehead as$; *%s the transgenerational transmission of trauma an appropriate model for describing the impact of the #ar on those #ho came after)+ C?D Such ideas of memory *transmission+ can be traced bac$ to the concept of *transgenerational haunting+ proposed in the =?>0s by psychologists Bicholas -braham and 5aria !oro$ to describe the #ay unspea$able family dramas may be passed do#n through generations -braham and !oro$2s The )olf !an6s !agic )ord C=?>HD has been extensively explicated by Esther 8ash$in in Family &ecrets and the Psychoanalysis of $arrative C=??2D 8ash$in begins by explaining -braham and !oro$2s theory of *transgenerational haunting+ by *phantoms+ - phantom is a psychic phenomenon that arises #hen an unspea$able family drama C#hat 8ash$in calls a secretD is silently transmitted from one generation to the next !his is explained by #ay of a *dual unity+ theory of child development, in #hich children receive their family history during the #eaning process %f at this crucial period there is a *gap or lacuna in the parent2s speech+, then this *unspea$able secret suspended #ithin the adult is transmitted silently to the child in Jundigested2 form and lodges #ithin his or her mental topography as an unmar$ed tomb of inaccessible $no#ledge+ C8ash$in 2>.8D !hus transgenerational haunting is offered as an explanation for traumatic symptoms in later life Lther uses of *transgenerational+ include -ndreas ,uyssen2s description of Sebald as embodying *transgenerational traumati4ation absent the experience itself+ C=:?D, and a recent boo$ by psychiatrists on the effects of the ,olocaust on the descendants of survivors, The Third %eich in the :nconscious: Transgenerational Transmission and its ConseBuences C@ol$an et al , 2002D !he term *transgenerational+, absent from all dictionaries, seems then to denote a mysterious process by #hich events Cespecially traumatic onesD from the recent past come to effect later generations !hus it parta$es of *memory+ in its more expansive sense of that #hich #e actively choose to remember that is nevertheless not part of our personal memory.store -s such it is related to 5arianne ,irsch2s concept of *postmemory+, #hich is *distinguished from memory by generational distance and from history by deep personal connection+ and #hich *characteri4es the experience of those #ho gro# up dominated by narratives that preceded their birth+ C22D % deal #ith this idea in detail in 1hapter < of the present study /or no#, it is these dimensions of time and memory that % #ish to add to the concept of empathy in order to begin to describe the approach to the ,olocaust ta$en by certain recent authors !he 0atin prefix trans@ is defined in the 7E. as *across, to or on

8= the further side of, beyond, over+, and as later chapters #ill sho# there is a strong sense in Sebald and /oer2s #or$ of a desire to move beyond immediate experience and (ourney to the further side of the past, #hether through travel to historical sites, genealogical reconstruction, or CimaginedD contact #ith survivors from that past !his chapter has attempted to sho# that the ethical and epistemological problems of identification may be resolved to an extent by dra#ing on a nuanced definition of empathy, #hich emphasi4es the latter term2s simultaneous combination of affect and ob(ectivity, and its dual meaning of sharing the feelings of others #hile at the same time understanding or comprehending the situation and context 8ather than a species of identification, as suggested in approaches ranging from Scheler2s taxonomy of feeling to Seen2s theory of the novel, empathy in 0a1aprian terms is a distinct concept @ersions of empathy have been useful in the development of aesthetic theory, sociology, and psychology, but it is its lin$s #ith historical and hermeneutic understanding #hich have proved more relevant to my study of authors #ho #rite about the past 5ean#hile, by adding *transgenerational+ to empathy % #ish to emphasi4e the importance of ideas of time, memory and generational distance !hrough transgenerational empathy the horrors of the ,olocaust may be approached in a #ay that neither over.identifies #ith nor ob(ectifies its victims, but instead, to use 3adamer2s terms, enacts a self.reflexive *historically effected consciousness+ that may enable a productive *fusion of hori4ons+ bet#een the #riter and the traumatic past !hough 3adamer did not consider this empathic as such, % contend that this #ider space of hermeneutical understanding is an ideal vicinity in #hich to contain 0a1aprian empathy, #hich posits the possibility that the other may be approached #ith affect #hile nevertheless maintaining one2s distance 0ater chapters on Sebald and /oer #ill see$ to clarify ho# this *transgenerational empathy+ manifests itself in narrative /irst, ho#ever, % turn to t#o contemporary ,olocaust narratives #hich fail to achieve empathy and remain fixed in an attitude of identification through their favouring of memory over history

82 Chapter * The conse+uences of promoting memory over history: identification and deception in Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces and -in.amin Wil!omirs!i,s Fragments

*,istory is amoral; events occurred 6ut memory is moral; #hat #e consciously remember is #hat our conscience remembers+ C-nne 5ichaels, Fugitive Pieces =98D *!he document % hold in my hands F G gives the date of my birth as /ebruary =2, =?:= 6ut this date has nothing to do #ith either the history of this century or my personal history+ C6in(amin 'il$omirs$i, Fragments =<:D

!#o apparently very different contributions to ,olocaust literature appeared in =??H; a densely poetic novel about the legacy of the Shoah, Fugitive PiecesA and the English translation of a sensational memoir by a child survivor, Fragments: !emories of a Childhood, 3454@34EF !he former is the first #or$ of fiction by -nne 5ichaels, a 1anadian previously $no#n as a poet !he authorship of the latter, originally published in 3erman as "ruchstCc-e: Aus einer =indheit 3454@34EF C=??<D, is famously less straightfor#ard !he name on the title page, 6in(amin 'il$omirs$i, #as later conclusively proved to be the pseudonym of 6runo D[sse$$er D[sse$$er had not lived through t#o Ba4i concentration camps as he claimed, and a literary fraud #as exposed Csee 3an4fried =??8, 0appin =???, 3ourevitch =???, and 5aechler 200=D !hough very different in form and provenance, then, Fugitive Pieces and Fragments nevertheless share, on both textual and meta.textual levels, one over.arching theme; memory %n this chapter, % argue that the attitude of both authors to#ards the ,olocaust is defined by their favouring of *memory+ over *history+ !hough they carried out extensive historical research, both profess a disdain for history as such in favour of #hat they perceive to be the healing and redemptive po#er of memory 8eflecting #ider trends, both 5ichaels and 'il$omirs$i place memory above history, belief above evidence, affect above cognition, feeling above $no#ledge 5emory is so important in their value.systems that it becomes acceptable to them to appropriate the memories or sub(ect.position of others, so long as beneficial effects appear to accrue, #hether to the individual C'il$omirs$iD or to society as a #hole C5ichaelsD

89

!his process may be characteri4ed as a species of identification 'il$omirs$i identified #ith ,olocaust survivors to the extent that he came to believe he #as one himself 5ichaels2 narrators appear to e"uate the status of those born after #ith eye.#itnesses to the event K a highly dubious identification Fugitive Pieces also portrays the redemptive path of its characters2 lives as being directly correlated #ith the extent to #hich they identify #ith victims !hus % #ill endeavour to sho# that the position of these authors in relation to the past is essentially identificatory rather than em athic Bot only is their emphasis on memory a problematic mode of identification, but they may also be seen to over.identify #ith memory itself 6y privileging memory and affect they ta$e a position of over.proximity, deliberately precluding the distance that other authors, for ethical and epistemological reasons, build into their narrative structures 5ichaels and 'il$omirs$i polemically oppose memory to history, in #hich the one stands for identification, affect, and proximity, #hile the other is thought to e"ual ob(ectivity, rationality, and distance -s suggested in the last chapter, it is rather in the com+ination of these attributes that 0a1aprian empathy may be achieved %t may thus follo# that oppositions bet#een memory and history are false or unhelpful, and that textual practice should see$ a balance bet#een the t#o %ndeed, it is precisely this balance that forms the core of certain #or$s by ' 3 Sebald and 7onathan Safran /oer #hich are analysed in later chapters of the present study %t may be helpful first to put the memory.history opposition into context -n initial observation is that the argument, at least #ithin the academic #orld, appears to ta$e place #ithin the field or discipline of *,istory+ !he conflict is not bet#een memory and history as such, but bet#een a historiographical practice that #elcomes and embraces memory and one that treats it #ith suspicion %n =??2, the ,arvard historian 1harles 5aier, at a conference entitled *!he /uture of 5emory+, treated this issue as one of some importance %s there, 5aier as$s, *- Surfeit of 5emory)+ Despite careful e"uivocation, his ans#er is ultimately damning /or 5aier, the *memory industry+ is characteri4ed by *complacency+ and *collective self.indulgence+ !he contemporary emphasis on memory is *inauthentic and unhealthy,+ *neurasthenic and disabling,+ a *semi.opa"ue and self.referential activity+ #hich signifies a *retreat from transformative politics+ ,istory, on the other hand, offers a #ider perspective, ensures proper *causal se"uencing,+ and ta$es seriously the responsibility to *explain+ the past

8: C=9>, =:=, =:9, =<0D 5aier2s speech #as delivered at the tenth anniversary conference of the /ortunoff @ideo -rchive for ,olocaust !estimonies at Eale University !hough careful to praise this venture in his opening remar$s, 5aier2s argument nevertheless reveals the fear and suspicion felt by historians in the face of the emergence of such pro(ects #hich place memory at their centre 5aier2s speech too$ place in the same year as the appearance of the seventh and final volume of Pierre Bora2s vast pro(ect of /rench cultural memory, Les Lieu, de !Gmoire C=?8:.?2D !his venture dissected the cultural consciousness of /rance through its monuments, rituals, legends and artifacts -s general editor, Bora used the pro(ect to express a startling thesis, in #hich he laments the loss of an organic mode of memory to the forces of modern historical consciousness /or Bora, this amounts to nothing less than a *con"uest and eradication of memory by history+ C8D =0 'hereas memory used to be social and *immediate,+ it has no# become individual and *indirect+ *!rue memory+ consists of *gestures and habits, in s$ills passed do#n by unspo$en traditions, in the body2s inherent self.$no#ledge, in unstudied reflexes and ingrained memories,+ #hereas *memory transformed by its passage through history+ is *voluntary and deliberate, experienced as a duty, no longer spontaneous+ C=9D C!here are echoes here of 'alter 6en(amin2s thesis that the death of storytelling is *a concomitant symptom of the secular productive forces of history+ F8HG D -s a result, for Bora, memory2s manifestations in the #orld have also changed *!here are lieu, de mGmoire, sites of memory, because there are no longer milieu, de mGmoire, real environments of memory+ C>D Bora2s argument expresses an almost mystical nostalgia 0a#rence Srit4man, in his fore#ord to the English translation, %ealms of !emory: The Construction of the French Past, observes that *Bora2s magnum opus represents the symptomology of a certain form of cultural melancholia+ CixD !hat this nostalgic melancholia is expressed in terms of an opposition bet#een memory and history, #hich is nevertheless enacted #ithin a historiographical pro(ect, reveals the importance that memory as a concept had gained by this time !he influence of ,alb#achs2 theory of collective memory is clearly visible and often noted 7ust as important to the rise of memory, ho#ever,
=0

Page numbers are from Bora2s =?8? article in %e resentations, #hich is substantively the same as his general introduction to Les Lieu, de !Gmoire

8< particularly in relation to ,olocaust studies, is the 7e#ish memorial tradition !his strand reveals the sacred aspect to certain vie#s of collective memory that is implicit in Bora2s #or$ Eosef Eerushalmi2s /a-hor: *e#ish History and *e#ish !emory C=?82D ma$es this feature explicit #hile expressing stri$ingly similar sentiments to the /rench historian Eerushalmi dra#s on a specifically 7e#ish notion of memory as active, ritualistic, redemptive, and hopeful, and invo$es the traditions of rabbinical ahistoricism, Sabbalah, and 3nostic myth Despite the survival of these traditions in 7e#ish consciousness, he argues, collective 7e#ish memory has been *eroded+ C=2>D !his is a *malady+ that cannot be *healed+ by historians C?:D 0i$e Bora, Eerushalmi distinguishes memory from modern historiography, arguing that the former is selective and the latter all.encompassing !his totalizing tendency of history is critici4ed for challenging and reversing the process of collective memory 5odern historical consciousness is no substitute for the certainties of the past; *Bothing has replaced the coherence and meaning #ith #hich a po#erful messianic faith once imbued both 7e#ish past and future Perhaps nothing else can+ C?<D -ccusations of history2s totalising propensities go hand in hand #ith the rise of memory, and can be traced bac$ much further than Eerushalmi %n *!he 6urden of ,istory+ C=?HHD, ,ayden 'hite argued that historians must dra# on innovations in both the artistic and scientific spheres in order to *recogni4e that there is no such thing as a single correct vie# of any ob(ect under study but that there are many correct vie#s+ 'or$ing #ithin this ne#, pluralist approach, historians *should no longer naively expect that statements about a given epoch or complex of events in the past Jcorrespond2 to some pre.existent body of Jra# facts2+ C:>D Such arguments have paved the #ay for the voices of apparently insignificant individuals to be included in accounts of the past !heir memories are no longer discounted because of their lac$ of correspondence to *established+ facts, but instead are embraced, either for generating ne# ideas and perspectives, or for expressing the formerly silenced voices of the oppressed !his vein of thought has been nourished by 5ichel /oucault2s pro(ect of re.examining history from the perspective of its participants and revealing the po#er structures ignored by previous assumptions %n =??0, 3eorge 0ipsit4 adapted /oucault2s term counter@memory to promote the pluralistic and sub(ective "ualities of memory over

8H totalising historical accounts Counter@memory for 0ipsit4 is an ethical act of criticism %t is a #ay of remembering and forgetting that starts #ith the local, the immediate, and the personal Unli$e historical narratives that begin #ith the totality of human existence and then locate specific actions and events #ithin that totality, counter.memory starts #ith the particular and the specific and then builds out#ard to#ard a total story C2=9D %n itself this method appears unob(ectionable 6ut 0ipsit4 uses it to ma$e a claim about different $inds of *truth+ ,e examines five *popular+ novels about marginali4ed peoples, #hich are held to exemplify the heterogeneous plurality of experience and thereby challenge the oppressions of history ,o#ever, they also tap into the collective memory of their readership, #hich is conceived to be from the same ethnic or social group as the #riter !his collective memory, for 0ipsit4, is the only relevant test; %f counter.memory lac$s the traditional truth tests of evidence basic to linear histories, it also sub(ects itself to an even more rigorous test K the standard of collective memory and desire /or these narratives to succeed, they must resonate #ith the experiences and feelings of their audiences C228D !his impulse to replace *truth tests of evidence+ #ith *the standard of collective memory and desire+ is precisely #hat 1harles 5aier feared about the prevailing intellectual climate 5ean#hile, the "uasi.mystical, perhaps even sacral, tendencies of 0ipsit42s argument are revealed by his appeal Cand here he self.avo#edly departs from /oucaultD to a ne# Cor perhaps oldD $ind of totality; %t is in loo$ing at the great cycle that +inds us all that counter.memory surpasses history and myth, that it transcends the false closures of linear history and the destructive ruptures and divisions of myth to create an active memory #hich dra#s upon the pluralities of the past and present to illumine the opportunities of the future C22H, emphasis mineD !hus once again the appeal to memory includes nostalgia for an organic or *natural+ apprehension of the #orld that has been someho# obscured by contemporary life and thought Bora2s *unspo$en traditions,+ Eerushalmi2s *coherence and meaning+ through faith, and 0ipsit42s *great cycle+ are all strangely vague formulations that announce their authors2 #ish to stand outside empirical evidence or ob(ective rationality

8>

%n a #ide.ranging article on the rise of memory studies published in 2000, Ser#in 0ee Slein critici4es this tendency Slein points out that supposedly postmodern ideas about memory, as found in our *ne# memorial consciousness+ C=2?D, are essentially the same as those of the pre.modern era, but differently clothed /or Slein, this is revealed by the religious and spiritual connotations found in the language of memory studies; testimony, redem tion, ritual, #itnessing, mourning and so on !hus, *the ne# memory #or$ displaces the old hermeneutics of suspicion #ith a therapeutic discourse #hose "uasi. religious gestures lin$ it #ith memory2s deep semantic past+ C=:=.2D !his atavistic impulse appears almost every#here in recent #riting about memory -ndreas ,uyssen2s T#ilight !emories C=??<D is a case in point !he cultural historian ma$es an important point about the generative po#er of memory, arguing that its basic structural *fissure+ bet#een experience and representation underlies *cultural and artistic creativity+ C2.9D /urther, he very reasonably argues that *the shift from history to memory represents a #elcome criti"ue of compromised teleological notions of history rather than being simply anti.historical, relativistic, or sub(ective+ CHD 6ut in locating the memory boom as a reaction against late capitalism and the information revolution, ,uyssen implies that there #as once a golden age #hen time #as experienced more naturally /or ,uyssen, attention to memory represents the attempt to slo# do#n information processing, to resist the dissolution of time in the synchronicity of the archive, to recover a mode of contemplation outside the universe of simulation and fast.speed information and cable net#or$s, to claim some anchoring space in a #orld of pu44ling and often threatening heterogeneity, non.synchronicity, and information overload C>D ,uyssen thus lin$s the rise of memory #ith a concurrent re(ection of modern life %n this argument, memory is the shield #ith #hich #e are to defend ourselves against the inhuman advances of CpostDmodernity !his suggests that memory is someho# #hat ma$es us humanA and it is only a short leap from this to say that memory is identity %ndeed, #or$ in cultural memory tends to proceed from this assumption /or example, 5arita Stur$en begins her boo$ on -merican cultural memory of -%DS and @ietnam, Tangled !emories C=??>D, #ith this bald assertion; *-s the means by #hich #e remember #ho #e are, memory provides the very core of identity+ C=D 6ut memory is

88 fallible and vulnerable Each time #e remember something, #e re.member itA that is, #e inevitably modify the memory by the act of remembrance 5emories do not live in a filing cabinet of the mind, #aiting to be retrieved in their original state -s 0inda 3rant #rites, paraphrasing neurobiologist Steven 8ose, memory *isn2t a place, a store. house or a machine for recording events+ but *an intricate and ever shifting net of firing neurons F G the t#istings and turnings of #hich rearrange themselves completely each time something is recalled+ C"td in Sing, !emory =<D -s % argued in 1hapter = of the present study, this also goes for so.called traumatic memories So to the extent that #e *are+ our memories, humans are uncertain, changeable, and paradoxical 'e #ould get nothing done if #e only relied on #hat our memories tell us %nstead #e combine the faculty #ith attempts at ob(ective, rational, empirical testing, one manifestation of #hich is the impulse to #rite history !his combination may be compared to the dual structure of empathy, defined in this study as a simultaneous gesture of proximity and distance %ndeed, 0a1apra2s idea of *empathic unsettlement+ stems precisely from his historian2s desire for ob(ective truth combined #ith unease about the affective po#er of memory, #hich he nevertheless see$s to ac$no#ledge and harness 0a1apra2s thesis, then, arises from the crucial importance placed on the opposition bet#een memory and history -s in the vie#s of 1harles 5aier "uoted above, this arises in turn from a suspicion of ne# methods #hich bypass empirical truth.testing -s 8oth and Salas summari4e in their introduction to .istur+ing %emains: !emory, History and Crisis in the T#entieth Century C200=D; *-ppeals to memory are not sub(ect to the same criteria of ad(udication as appeals to historical evidence !hey claim an unmediated authenticity not sub(ect to academic criti"ue+ C9D %n the field of ,olocaust studies, this has led to a sometimes polari4ed argument about the relative merits of documentary and testimonial evidence 8aul ,ilberg, for example, compiled his landmar$ #or$ The .estruction of the Euro ean *e#s C=?H=D almost entirely from statistics and documents, largely ignoring survivor accounts Lne problem #ith this approach is that it necessarily dra#s on the accounts of perpetrators, as it is they #ho #rote the memoranda, timetables and reports on #hich ,ilberg dra#s, rather than those of victims, #hose voices may conse"uently go unheard %n his memoir The Politics of !emory: The *ourney of a Holocaust Historian C=??HD, ,ilberg defends his position by citing three problems #ith survivor accounts /irst, survivors are in no #ay representative of victims as a #holeA they cannot be described as a *random sample+

8? C=99D #hen the ma(ority of the cohort are dead Second, interest in survivor accounts has tended to exalt victims and portray them as heroic #hatever their actual actions 5ost importantly, ho#ever, survivor accounts omit details the historian needs; %n their accounts, survivors generally leave out the setting of their experiences, such as specific localities or the names and positions of persons they encountered Even #hen they tal$ about themselves, they do not necessarily reveal mundane information F G Understandably the survivors seldom spea$ of those experiences that #ere most humiliating or embarrassing F G Lnly one fact is al#ays revealed clearly and completely %t is the self.portrait of the survivors, their psychological ma$eup, and #hat it too$ to survive C=99D !his account of the survivor memory indicates its tendency to#ards selectivity and sub(ectivity ,ilberg prefers to focus on documents, for #hich he displays all the reverence of a life.long archival researcher ,o#ever, despite ,ilberg2s influence in the field, the extent to #hich his approach has led to a lac$ of attention to survivor memory is negligible %n the last fe# decades there has been a plethora of first.person testimonial accounts published as boo$sA ne# museal approaches that privilege individual voices, such as the United States ,olocaust 5emorial 5useum in 'ashington D 1 A television, film and novel treatments that focus on Coften heroicD individualsA and vast video pro(ects li$e the /ortunoff -rchive and Steven Spielberg2s Shoah /oundation #hich see$ to record the memories of as many ,olocaust survivors as possible ,ilberg #as perhaps fighting a losing battle in his plea for attention to facts and documentary evidence in the face of the memory boom %t #as in this climate that 6in(amin 'il$omirs$i2s memoir appeared, first in 3ermany in =??<, and then in translation the follo#ing year as Fragments %n many #ays this text exemplifies the turn from ob(ective history to affective memory in the latter stages of the t#entieth century, as the follo#ing analysis #ill sho# Bo# that the events of the *'il$omirs$i -ffair+ are several years past, it is perhaps possible to gain some perspective on themA to evaluate the critical response, #hich appears to have pea$edA and to move a#ay from the critical fixation on #hat the case *reveals+ and return to the original text as an ob(ect of analysis !he facts #ere exhaustively researched and presented by Stefan 5aechler in his report The )il-omirs-i Affair: A &tudy in "iogra hical Truth C200=D, and % rely on this #or$ in

?0 #hat follo#s == !he story put for#ard by the author of Fragments is that he #as born 6in(amin 'il$omirs$i in the late =?90s in Eastern EuropeA escaped from 8iga #hen the Ba4is arrived, possibly #itnessing the death of his fatherA endured a series of horrors in the camps of 5a(dane$ and -usch#it4A lived after the #ar in a Sra$o# orphanage before being smuggled to S#it4erland and another children2s homeA and finally #as adopted by an affluent Ourich couple named D[sse$$er and given a ne# identity ,o#ever, 5aechler has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the author of Fragments #as in fact born 6runo 3ros(ean in S#it4erland in =?:= to an unmarried mother of lo# social statusA #as given up for adoption after t#o yearsA had three sets of foster.parents before eventually settling #ith the D[sse$$ers, #hose name he too$A and from a young age demonstrated both a tendency to#ards self.invention and an obsession #ith the ,olocaust %ndeed, 5aechler persuasively argues that 6runo D[sse$$er2s creation of the identity of a 7e#ish ,olocaust survivor named *6in(amin 'il$omirs$i+ too$ place gradually over many years before culminating #ith the publication of his boo$ in =??<, and that the case is as much one of pathological identity confusion as deliberate fraud %n both versions of events, the boy gro#s up to be 6runo D[sse$$er, a successful musician and instrument builder in S#it4erland !he contradictions bet#een the *memories+ set out in Fragments and the author2s public identity #ere highlighted in a letter from a local (ournalist to the publisher, Suhr$amp, #hile the manuscript #as still being processed -s a result, D[sse$$er #as prevailed upon by Suhr$amp to add an -fter#ord #hich ac$no#ledges the discrepancy, and in #hich he advances the claim that his birth certificate is both incomplete and false %ndeed, the author of Fragments states that he has *ta$en legal steps to have this imposed identity annulled+ C=<:D, though in fact there #as nothing #rong #ith the certificate and D[sse$$er2s *legal steps+ #ere never ta$en Ln publication the boo$ received critical acclaim, though commercial sales #ere relatively small !ranslated into nine languages, its author received the Bational 7e#ish 6oo$ -#ard C=??HD, the Prix 5Qmoire de la Shoah by the Fondation du *udaHsme FranIais, and *e#ish 'uarterly2s pri4e for non.fiction Cboth =??>D 6la$e Es$in, in The !a-ing and :nma-ing of "in1amin )il-omirs-i C2002D, reports that #hile many ,olocaust experts praised the boo$, there #ere dissenting voices from such notables as 8aul ,ilberg and 0a#rence 0anger, #ho unfortunately did
==

5aechler2s report #as *FoGriginally published in some#hat different form in S#it4erland in the 3erman language as .er Fall )il-omirs-i+, in 2000, according to the copyright page in my edition

?= not put them into print %nstead, the first published doubts about the veracity of Fragments appeared in a revie# on the -ma4on #ebsite in 5arch =??8 by 5ichael 5ills, an amateur historian $no#n for his revisionist sympathies CEs$in >HD ,o#ever, it #as the S#iss (ournalist Daniel 3an4fried #ho officially bro$e the story, aggressively challenging the author of Fragments in a series of articles for the Ourich #ee$ly .ie )elt#oche, the first of #hich appeared in -ugust =??8 3an4fried had previously published his o#n ,olocaust boo$, .er A+sender C=??<D, a novel in #hich he openly fictionali4ed the story of his survivor fatherA perhaps this made him alert to the issues of truth and memory suggested by Fragments !hen in =???, t#o investigative (ournalists intervie#ed D[sse$$er and presented further evidence of the deception !he titles of Elena 0appin and Philip 3ourevitch2s articles K *- 5an #ith !#o ,eads+ and *!he 5emory !hief+ K neatly summari4e the t#in approaches of amateur psychoanalysis and moral accusation that the case provo$ed !hese interventions forced D[sse$$er2s literary agent into action %t engaged 5aechler, a S#iss historian, #hose findings persuaded publishers #orld#ide to belatedly #ithdra# the boo$ from their lists !his has resulted in the curious situation that the text of Fragments is no# only available as an appendix to 5aechler2s report or through second.hand sources !he =??> Picador edition of Fragments carries, on its bac$ cover, some "uotations from the revie#s !he first, attributed to Paul 6ailey in the .aily Telegra h, concludes; *!he bravery of F'il$omirs$i2sG underta$ing cannot be exaggerated, nor the sense of human dignity it leaves #ith the reader + !he second, "uoting Patricia 0ee in the Literary %evie#, calls Fragments *FaGn unforgettable tribute on many levels F implicitly F G F#hichG G honours the personal "ualities of the #riter+ 6y virtue of such

*bravery+ and other *human "ualities+, 'il$omirs$i #as initially compared to Paul 1elan, Elie 'iesel, and even Primo 0evi C5aechler ==:D, thus conferring authority by proxy !his authority includes the sense that he #as able to personally verify historical occurrencesA according to !a(a 3ut in $eue /Crcher /eitung, 'il$omirs$i is *one of the most essential #itnesses to the death camps+ C"td in 5aechler ==9.:D !he dar$ irony #ith #hich these constructions of a brave, authoritative #itness must no# be seen should not obscure their contingent factors %t #ould be unfair to critici4e these initial revie#ers of Fragments for their un"uestioning praise, as many factors #ould have blinded them to the deception -long #ith the sheer affective po#er of the story 'il$omirs$i tells, there may, for example, have been a desire to be on the right side of

?2 the gro#ing debate about ,olocaust denial Deborah 0ipstadt2s boo$ .enying the Holocaust had appeared in =??9A the accused historian David %rving sued her in =??H, the year Fragments appeared in English ,o#ever, one aspect of the response that deserves closer attention is the #ay critics ignored or even denied the literary "ualities of the boo$, seeing Fragments as a direct #indo# onto the experience of the ,olocaust K as a piece of pure content #ithout form - revie# by 7onathan So4ol described Fragments as *free of literary artifice+ C"td in ,asian, 29<D -rthur Samuels of Schoc$en 6oo$s, 'il$omirs$i2s Be# Eor$ publisher, defended the text as follo#s; *% li$e it for its simplicity, humanity, lac$ of artifice+ C"td in 0appin, :?D 'hatever the reasons for this response, it is clear that in reality the opposite is the case Fragments consists of a highly structured series of associative flashbac$s %t has a complex mix of narrative voices; the child 6in(amin at various ages, and the adult author #ho *remembers+ both the original memories and the supposed events to #hich they relate %t gains its po#er through a carefully crafted use of pace, in #hich horrific revelations are gradually accreted alongside narratorial interventions that highlight their traumatic after.effects %n contrast, the horrors themselves, #hich include rats living in corpses and starving babies eating their o#n fingers, no# appear excessive, grotes"ue, and far.fetched !herefore, perhaps it is not the e, eriences that constitute the boo$2s po#er to persuade, but the #ay they are represented; in short, the *artifice+ of Fragments as a literary text -s 7 7 0ong points out, readers #ho have the benefit of hindsight must no# begin to evaluate these textual elements; *!he only #ay in #hich 'il$omirs$i.3ros(ean2s text can be Jrescued2 for literary history is to refuse the proffered identification #ith the narrator and turn attention to those formal techni"ues that proved so effective in creating the illusion of authenticity+ CH2.9D !he follo#ing analysis constitutes a contribution to this pro(ect of retrieval Fragments opens #ith a series of claims about the nature of its narrator2s memory; 5y early childhood memories are planted, first and foremost, in exact snapshots of my photographic memory and in the feelings imprinted in them, and the physical sensations !hen comes memory of being able to hear, and things % heard, then things % thought, and last of all, memory of things % said C:D

?9 !his impressively comprehensive list, featuring sight, touch, hearing, affect, and both internal and external speech, may help persuade the reader that #hat follo#s is a true account !he narrator reinforces his ad(ective *exact+ #ith the metaphor of photographic development, and a fe# lines later bac$s this up #ith a further image; *5y earliest memories are a rubble field of isolated images and events Shards of memory #ith hard $nife.sharp edges, #hich still cut flesh if touched today+ C:D %n addition to appealing to the reader2s sympathy through shared $no#ledge of shards2 ability to #ound, the sharpness of these fragments of memory suggests clarity !hroughout the rest of the boo$ the narrator intervenes #ith similar claims, supported by metaphors li$e branding and scoring; *!he image of the t#o boys in front of the barrac$s door is burned into my mind+ CH0DA *the last day in the room is embedded in sharp contours in my mind, indelibly+ C=0=D Eet these claims to certainty and clarity are constantly undermined 8ecollection is often *ha4y+ C==9D or *all a blur+ C==<D !ime and place are vague; *% don2t remember any longer #here it #as, or #hen+ C>>D Lf course, these conflicting claims are consistent #ith the common experience of memories from childhood, #ith their combination of po#erful images and faded certainties, and as such may even bolster the reader2s confidence and trust 6ut there is a more subtle contradiction to the narrator2s memory claims, revealed by his labelling of certain recollections as uninvited and un#elcome - happy memory of sledding in 8iga is *"uic$ly scared off by other ones, dar$ and suffocating, #hich push into my brain and #on2t let go+ C<D 0ater, a#a$ening from a nightmare in the safety of post.#ar S#it4erland, the narrator reports that he *had to thin$ about+ the time he #as loc$ed in a dog $ennel C:0, emphasis mineD -gain, in the Polish orphanage, a guilt.triggering encounter #ith t#o ne# boys heralds the intrusion of un#anted memory, #hich no# has even greater physical force; % couldn2t stop the vivid memories of the ne# boy in the big barrac$s !hey Fthe memoriesG forced me to lie still and for the thousandth time % had to be a spectator at #hat had happened to the ne# boy in front of the barrac$s, and ho# it #as my fault and my crime C<8D !hese experiences are of course consistent #ith the phenomenon of un#anted *flashbac$s+ experienced by sufferers from post.traumatic stress disorder, but as % argued in my first chapter these should be treated #ith caution %ndeed, the notion of

?: ,olocaust memories returning of their o#n accord, as a $ind of literal return of the past, has become a clichQ ripe for satire /or example, in 7onathan 8aban2s novel &urveillance C200HD, a character named *-ugie @anags+ #rites an account of his 7e#ish childhood in Europe, *6oy 98=+, that includes the usual mix of hiding and horrors @anags professes to have #ritten this boo$ in (ust four #ee$s, having not thought or spo$en of that time for over sixty years %t (ust seems to #rite itselfA as he comments to a (ournalist; *- lot of it #as ne#s to me+ C=:2D 0eaving aside the "uestion of #hether such returning memories can be trusted, 'il$omirs$i2s account of his intrusive, unbidden thoughts is also, % #ould argue, a denial of agency and evasion of responsibility %f the memories appear unbidden, the narrator seems to suggest, it is not his fault if they turn out to be inaccurate or even untrue %n the light of the boo$2s exposure as invented, this element may be read as an unconscious admission of deception %ndeed, % #ould li$e to suggest that Fragments is as deceptive on the level of the te,t as it is in the #ider sense of a fraudulent claim to remember the ,olocaust - $ey aspect of this deception is the boo$2s false claim to give a child2s.eye perspective -t the outset, the author of Fragments declares clear intentions regarding narrative voice and point of vie#; *%f %2m going to #rite about it, % have to give up on the ordering logic of gro#n.upsA it #ould only distort #hat happened+ C:D ,e #ill, he says, relate only his unadorned memories, *#ith no benefit of perspective or vanishing point+ C<D 0eaving aside the "uestion of #hether it is only *gro#n.ups+ #ho benefit from the faculty of logic, this claim to a child2s.eye perspective carries interesting literary implications Es$in argues that by giving up the adult point of vie#, the author of Fragments enlists the reader as a $ind of accomplice !he reader supplies details that the author, to maintain a consistent child perspective, must miss out, according to Es$in; 5a$ing sense of Fragments re"uires a certain level of involvement, and if you suspend your tendency to apply logic, you must use your imagination !he impressionistic descriptions often use a part to represent the #hole; #hen the child2s eye notices a menacing boot or a gray uniform, the reader must rely on his prior $no#ledge of the ,olocaust to fill in the rest of the malevolent Ba4i #earing it !he episodic, nonlinear narrative #or$s the same #ay, re"uiring us to connect the dots to create his biography C90D

?< 'hile it is true that the text #ould be incomprehensible #ithout some $no#ledge of the ,olocaust, and that #e do indeed *connect the dots+ #hile reading it, these factors are no more pronounced than in any number of novels !his suggests that though Es$in #ants to complain about being hood#in$ed and enlisted as an accessory to deception, #hat he really ob(ects to is fictional techni"ue being used in an ostensibly factual account 0eaving aside for no# this problem of genre, close attention to the text reveals that the author of Fragments2 avo#ed intention to give an exclusively child2s.eye perspective is in any case not achieved %f, after the opening statements, the adult voice never re. appeared, except perhaps in the -fter#ord, #e could perhaps suspend disbelief, participate in the illusion, and agree that the author gives us his unadorned memories 6ut Fragments offers no such consistencyA the adult author constantly intervenes /or example, at the beginning of the narrator2s (ourney across Europe, he boards a train destined for *0emberg+ C02vovD ,ere the re.entry of the adult voice is announced not only #ith the introduction of hindsight but #ith a concurrent change of tense; Fchild;G % don2t $no# #hat 0emberg is %t2s some $ind of magic #ord, that stays hanging and s#aying in my head %t seems to be a place, maybe a to#n F G Fadult;G 'e never reached 0emberg, and #e never found the mysterious person #ho #as supposed to help us %nstead, this #as the beginning of years that % only slo#ly came to understand, #hen someone tried to tal$ hope into me again, and too$ me on another long (ourney C=0, my additionsD %f this is not the *benefit of perspective+ then it is difficult to imagine #hat #ould be -gain and again the adult voice returns -t the beginning of 1hapter ?, the narrator states that he o#es his life to his friend 7an$lA *% should #rite a #hole boo$ in his honour, not (ust one pitiful little chapter+ C>2D, he declares !he account of his friendship #ith *5ila+ moves from memories of their time together in Sra$o# to later moments in the narrator2s adulthood; *Eears later, #hen #e #ere both gro#n up F G+ C82D !he child2s trauma resulting from seeing a rat emerge out of the belly of a corpse is bolstered by an account of this event2s after.effects in adult life; *5any years later % #ent #ith my #ife for the birth of our first son F G % #asn2t ready for this little half. head of hair -ll % could do #as stand still and stare at it, and once again, li$e an echo from before, % heard the ringing and crac$ling noise in my chest+ C8>D -fter #al$ing past the bro$en bodies of murdered children in the camp, the narrator tries to understand

?H his attitude then in the light of his present self; *% often reproach myself, % can2t understand ho# % could have felt nothing for the little ones bac$ then -lthough % #as (ust a child myself, #as % already so brutali4ed that there #as nothing left in me, no sympathy, no pity, not even anger)+ C=0<D !he cumulative effect of these examples is that although #e may indeed have to fill in certain facts and details as #e read, our moral attitude and response to the narrator2s plight are carefully directed and manipulated !he *dots+ of the underlying message of the story have already been (oined by a narrator #ho cannot resist telling us #hat lessons #e should be dra#ing from his *memories+ 5ean#hile, the boo$2s very structure of associative flashbac$ also implies the adult perspective 'ho else but a *gro#n.up+ #ith *ordering logic+ could have put together this complex narrative) !here are ten different time.spaces that enclose the episodes of memory, #hich in *real.life+ chronology are; country farmhouse, 8iga, 5a(dane$, forced march, another concentration camp, liberation, Sra$o#, S#iss #aiting.room, S#iss orphanage, and S#iss school !hese are ta$en in non.chronological order and gradually revealed through the simple device of memory association 1hapter 2 sees the narrator #aiting at a S#iss train station, #here his temptation to trust friendly gro#n. ups leads to a memory of a *big gray man+ in a concentration camp, #ho had indulged in horse.play #ith the narrator before turning nasty and thro#ing him head.first at a #all 6ac$ in the #aiting.room, everyone has left and the narrator is alone !his triggers a very brief associative flashbac$ of being abandoned in the country farmhouse !he pattern continues throughout !hus the narrative structure, li$e everything else in the boo$, is predicated on affect, on ho# each memory inspires others through the feelings they stir in the narrator Such an approach, along #ith the expert #ay in #hich the time.frames and tenses are handled, helps create a high level of narrative unity 'e do not feel ourselves to be at the mercy of a child2s disorgani4ed memories, but in the hands of an expert, adult author !he deception involved in the false claim to be giving us the unadorned child2s vie# is also present at the smallest level of syntax, as Sue @ice has sho#n @ice argues that the narrative voice of Fragments reveals the literary rather than autobiographical nature of the text 8eferring to the narrator2s statement that *%2m (ust an eye, ta$ing in #hat it sees, giving nothing bac$+ C'il$omirs$i 8>D, @ice says that this

?>

elides the distinction bet#een character and narrator; the child may have been such a recording device, but it is the adult narrator #ho is telling the story !his utterance is an example not of reported speech or authentic testimony, but of the much more literary free indirect discourse !he narrator2s voice is present along #ith the character2s C=H:D 'hile *free indirect discourse+ is usually thought of only in relation to third.person narration, @ice uses it here as shorthand for her 6a$htinian notion of *double. voicedness+, in #hich *in each utterance there is present the representing and the represented voice+ C82D !he point is that throughout 'il$omirs$i2s narration there are t#o voices, adult and child, belying the narrator2s avo#ed intention to eliminate the former !his intention is also rather curious in itself -s 0ong argues, it contradicts the usual order of narrative authority; *'il$omirs$i2s narrative techni"ues are announced as self@ consciously esche#ing #hat #e #ould normally regard as indispensable elements of narrative representation in order not to falsify the experience+ C*6ernhard+ <?.H0, emphasis in originalD !he irony, of course, is that the experience, the story set out in Fragments, is indeed entirely *false+ !here is a double deception at play here; not only are the events fictitious, but the mode of their telling is not #hat is claimed -s 0ong points out, Fragments is not a *direct representation of traumatic experience+ but *rather a constructed formal analogue of traumatic recall+ C<?, emphasis in originalD % #ould go further and argue that Fragments2 claim to be a re resentation of #hat is CfalselyD remembered no# stands revealed as an unac$no#ledged act of CfalseD remembering %t is in essence a performative gesture of deception, and remains so #hether #e regard its author as a calculating fraudster, deluded fantasist, artful novelist, or some combination of these 'il$omirs$i, then, falsely claims to give the unadorned perspective of a child, #hile also denying agency and responsibility by alleging his memories to be un#anted and intrusive !here is a third element to this litany of deception; the probability that some of Fragments2 content #as ta$en from other sources !his plagiaristic aspect divides into three lin$ed categories, #hich % #ill no# ta$e in turn; transformations of the real

?8 past, appropriation of others2 memories and identities, and unac$no#ledged literary borro#ings 5aechler ma$es the case that some of the scenes in Fragments have roots in its author2s real memories 5aechler trac$ed do#n 8enQ -eberhard, #ho #as a teenager #hen three.year.old 6runo 3ros(ean #as briefly fostered by -eberhard2s family -eberhard, no# living in -merica, thin$s that the sections in the boo$ about life on a Polish farmhouse are a transformed version of their brief period of childhood together in Bidau, S#it4erland -eberhard cites several details of geographical correspondence, and also dra#s a parallel bet#een his mentally unstable, sometimes aggressive mother and the vicious farmer2s #ife portrayed in Fragments /rom this 5aechler concludes; *'il$omirs$i.3ros(ean did not have t#o headsA he had not led t#o lives %nstead, his boo$ tells his o#n life, the life of 6runo 3ros(ean K but #ith breathta$ing alienation+ C22?D !his may or may not be provable by comparing each episode from Fragments #ith events from its author2s life ,o#ever, such an approach is of limited use, being essentially speculative, and reliant on conflicting claims %ndeed, Es$in, #ho intervie#ed -eberhard again after reading 5aechler2s account, implies that the S#iss QmigrQ had anti.Semitic attitudes, and therefore *may not be an unpre(udiced #itness+ C29?D Bevertheless the psychoanalytical line of argument follo#ed by 5aechler does suggest that one element of Fragments2 falsity is a degree of self.deception in #hich the author2s memories have become unnaturally distorted and mingled #ith fantasy - more grave accusation is that 'il$omirs$i stole some of his memories from people he met during his ,olocaust research and his o#n "uest for identity 5aechler gives several examples, including that of someone 'il$omirs$i claims to be his friend *5ila+ from Fragments !his #oman no# denies that she ever $ne# him as a child, and, #orse, alleges that he pursued and befriended her before stealing and misrepresenting memories she told him in confidence; *% #as his memoryA he appropriated it+ C"td in 5aechler =??D -gain, such accusations are of limited value as they are reliant on others2 testimony, and are based on amateur psychoanalysis of 'il$omirs$i from a distance Bevertheless they do contribute to the mounting evidence of deception at the heart of Fragments

?? !he third #ay 'il$omirs$i appears to have appropriated sources outside himself is literary -s the (ournalist Elena 0appin noted on her visit to his countryside home, 'il$omirs$i has amassed an enormous personal library of ,olocaust papers, boo$s, films and photographs C=HD %t is possible to imagine 'il$omirs$i as a voracious reader #ho has internali4ed some of these texts !here are certainly easy parallels to dra# on a literary level #ith, for example, 7er4y Sosins$i2s The Painted "ird C=?H<D 0i$e Fragments, this boo$ depicts a vulnerable, victimi4ed, yet strangely indestructible child #ho is sub(ected to a fantastic array of horrors and acts of cruelty Lther correspondences include the use of a first.person child narrator, the theme of the innate barbarity of the Polish peasantry, post.#ar orphanages, plagues of rats, and loss of the po#er of speech -s -nne 'hitehead has argued, 'il$omirs$i probably too$ the idea of using a child2s.eye perspective from Sosins$i Sosins$i also appears to be a plausible influence on 'il$omirs$i by virtue of his unconventional attitude to the distinctions bet#een memory, history, truth and fiction -s 'hitehead notes, 'il$omirs$i, li$e Sosins$i, *displayed a notable tendency to internali4e his o#n fictions as part of his process of self.invention+ C?D Sosins$i, li$e 'il$omirs$i, initially gained popularity for his #or$ by inferring that it #as autobiographical, before retreating behind philosophical points about the blurred boundaries bet#een truth and storytelling %t is #orth examining this lin$ in more detail for #hat it reveals about 'il$omirs$i2s pro(ect of false remembrance !he early critical success of The Painted "ird in the mid.=?H0s o#ed much to Sosins$i spreading a rumour that it #as based on his o#n life Elie 'iesel, for example, commented; *% thought it #as fiction, and #hen he told me it #as autobiography % tore up my revie# and #rote one a thousand times better+ C"td in 5aechler 2=:D 6ut in the years follo#ing publication Sosins$i #as regularly found pontificating about the #ay his boo$ transcended simple genres %n a piece entitled *-fter#ard+, #hich prefaces the =?>H edition, he presented the boo$2s genesis as follo#s; *% decided % F G #ould set my #or$ in a mythic domain, in the timeless fictive present, unrestrained by geography or history+ CxiiiD Else#here, Sosins$i compares The Painted "ird to 1amus2 essay %eturn to Ti asa, in #hich *the literal and the symbolic approach one another so closely that from their confrontation arises the meaning+ C"td in @ice >?D Bot#ithstanding such attempts to distance his text from his biography, Sosins$i continued to maintain that he had indeed been separated from his parents during the #ar, and thereby suffered,

=00 if not the exact horrors of his novel, some level of persecution and privation -n article in =?82=2 unearthed the truth %t turned out that he and his family had been sheltered by members of the same Polish peasantry vilified as anti.Semitic brutes in The Painted "ird Sosins$i2s credibility as an author #as fatally damaged 'il$omirs$i, mean#hile, did not reach for such high.flo#n reasoning as Sosins$i in his prevarications, instead opting for simple denial that he had ever meant his boo$ as a truthful account 'hen 3an4fried bro$e the story, in =??8, 'il$omirs$i told a reporter from the Ourich Tages@Anzeiger; *%t #as al#ays the free choice of the reader to read my boo$ as literature or to ta$e it as a personal document Bobody has to believe me+ C"td in 3ourevitch <=D !his response constitutes a refusal to ta$e responsibility for the boo$2s effect ,e later told 3ourevitch; *% (ust #rote ho# these memories remain in a child2s memory !hat2s all %f after#ard people treat the boo$ as if it #ere an adult expert2s report about the ,olocaust, it2s completely stupid 6ut it2s their problem, not my problem+ C"td in 3ourevitch <2D !hough 'il$omirs$i never says so explicitly, this denial that his #or$ is factual implies that it can be ta$en as fiction 0i$e Sosins$i, his stance is to accuse others of *stupidly+ trying to match his #riting to verifiable facts, #hile he remains aloof from such "uotidian concerns -nother ,olocaust narrative of "uestionable veracity that may have influenced 'il$omirs$i is 5artin 3ray2s For Those I Loved /irst published in /rance in =?>= as Au $om de Tous les !iens, this memoir describes 3ray2s experiences in the 'arsa# ghetto, escape from !reblin$a death camp, stint as a partisan fighter, and role as a Ba4i. hunter after the #ar %t #as ghost.#ritten by 5ax 3allo 'hen its success led to an English translation in =?>2, (ournalists found inconsistencies in the account and suggested that parts of it may have been fabricated -lthough 3ray successfully challenged this, and paperbac$ editions and a film follo#ed, the boo$ later fell out of print Es$in #rote in 2002 that *in recent years it has been more or less forgotten by everyone except those ,olocaust Jrevisionists2 #ho invo$e it as an example of the unreliability of first.person accounts of the ,olocaust+ C><.HD Bevertheless a *9<th anniversary expanded edition+ appeared in 200H, #hich ma$es virtually no reference to
=2

Sto$es, 3eoffrey and Eliot /remont.Smith J7er4y Sosins$i2s !ainted 'ords2 <illage <oice 22nd 7une =?82; :=.9 Useful overvie#s of the Sosins$i scandal may be found in 5aechler, The )il-omirs-i Affair 2=0.:, and @ice, Holocaust Fiction H>.?0 6oth dra# on 7ames Par$ Sloan, *erzy =osins-i: A "iogra hy C0ondon; PlumeIPenguin, =??>D

=0= the former controversy %nstead, in a ne# fore#ord, the *,istorian and Be# Eor$ !imes bestselling author+ Dr 'illiam 8 /orstchen tries to turn the boo$, rather bi4arrely, into anti.-rab propaganda /orstchen, #ho is best $no#n as a sci.fi novelist and co.author of *alternative histories+ #ith politician Be#t 3ingrich, #rites of *the irrefutable proof that so clearly lin$s the murderous anti.Semitism of ,itler2s thugs to the current situation in the 5iddle East+ K this *proof+ being the alleged evidence of the 3rand 5ufti2s collaboration in the persecution and destruction of the 7e#s 0in$ing this #ith 3ray2s text, /orstchen goes on to assert that For Those I Loved *is more relevant Fno#G than #hen it #as first published F #orld today+ CxiiD 3ray2s boo$ certainly appears to have been relevant to 'il$omirs$i !here is a stri$ing similarity bet#een 'il$omirs$i2s account of a horrific death on the streets of 8iga, and 3ray2s description of an incident in the 'arsa# ghetto %n Fragments, 'il$omirs$i claims to #itness an incident in #hich a man, *FmGaybe my father+, is murdered by *0atvian militia+, #ho position him in front of a #all before driving a vehicle into him; *Bo sound comes out of his mouth, but a big stream of something blac$ shoots out of his nec$ as the transport s"uashes him #ith a big crac$ against the house+ CH.>D %n For Those I Loved, 5artin 3ray recalls that as a teenager in the ghetto, he *al#ays dreamed the same dream+; 'e2d arrive in a narro# street, a dead end, and my father #ould be standing at the end of it, standing against the #all 5y mother and my brothers #ould run to#ard him, and suddenly a heavy 3erman truc$ #ould loom up, bear do#n on them, about to crush them against the #all, and % couldn2t even cry out C=<D !his dream turns out to have been inspired by 5artin2s memory of recently #itnessing a 3erman truc$ careering through the ghettoA in the aftermath he sees, *FaGgainst a #all, his arms still raised, F G a man, crushed+ C=HD !he incident in Fragments, then, appears to originate in a memory claimed by 3ray in a ghost.#ritten account #hose veracity has been repeatedly challenged %t is transmuted by 3ray into a dream that reflects his fears for his father, before being adapted by 'il$omirs$i to account for the lac$ of a father in his constructed story !his episode is not (ust another example of 'il$omirs$i2s deception, this time by probable plagiarism 5ore crucially, the myriad G !he evil that generated it still stal$s the

=02 layers of memory involved reveal (ust ho# far Fragments is from having any claim to ob(ective truth about the past 6ut this is precisely the pointA 'il$omirs$i is ma$ing no such claim %nstead he asserts the opposite; that memories are valid and must be respected regardless of their correspondence to historical fact or circumstance, because a person2s recollections constitute his or her inviolable identity !his approach to remembrance is rooted in the young 'il$omirs$i2s t#in interests in contemporary history and his o#n developing personality During an intervie#, 5aechler discovered that 'il$omirs$i undertoo$ doctorate.level historical research after he left school, and finds that he did so *not to follo# the career of a historian but to put his story into context and to understand it+ C<>.8D 0ater, 'il$omirs$i befriended the psychologist Eli 6ernstein, #ith #hom he concocted a *theory+ of childhood memory and history that they began to present in public in the early =??0s -ddressing a perceived gap in ,olocaust studies, 'il$omirs$i and 6ernstein argued that oral testimony must be nurtured and dra#n out through an *interdisciplinary+ therapeutic approach involving a historian and a psychologist !he memories to be revealed by this method are those of people li$e *6in(amin 'il$omirs$i+, that is, so.called *children #ithout identity+ #ho emerged from 'orld 'ar %% #ith no coherent past 'hile 6ernstein too$ the psychologist role, 'il$omirs$i appears to have acted as the historian 6ut 'il$omirs$i #as also their only client 5ost of the examples they give in their tal$s are episodes from Fragments, and virtually no other *patients+ appear to have ta$en part -s 5aechler says, in this model 'il$omirs$i *verifies memories that he himself has constructed on the basis of his o#n historical research+ C2<>D - paper given by 'il$omirs$i and 6ernstein, cited by 5aechler, is entitled; *!he 1hild2s 5emory as a ,istorical Source in 1ontemporary ,istory, as Exemplified by Surviving 1hildren of the Shoah + *5emory+ and *historical source+ have become one 0eaving aside the "uestionable merits of such an approach, the fact that it #as developed at the same time that 'il$omirs$i #as #riting do#n his *memories+ suggests that his and 6ernstein2s theory #as Cprobably unconsciouslyD designed to act as a defence against accusations of fictionalising his past 5aechler says that the first person to ma$e this connection bet#een the *memory as history+ approach and the genesis of Fragments #as 7[rg 0au, in an article in .ie /eit on =>th September =??8

=09 0au #rote that Fragments *#as #ritten in the spirit of a presumptuous psychotherapy that believes it can provide meaning in life, indeed an Jidentity2, by accepting, supporting, and authenticating as Jhistorical reality2 anything the client may choose to offer+ C"td in 5aechler =9<D %ndeed, in one of their tal$s 'il$omirs$i and 6ernstein assert that *the "uestion of #hether there is actual truth in the client2s early.childhood memories is irrelevant for the psychotherapist+ C"td in 3ourevitch <?.H0D !his of course is a distortion of the intentions of clinical practice, as Es$in points out; *!he 'il$omirs$i.6ernstein approach treats fragments of memory as clues not only to a person2s Jinner reality,2 the normal purvie# of psychotherapy, but to their Jexternal reality2 as #ell+ C8:D 'il$omirs$i2s approach to memory also dra#s on concepts of trauma -s 3ourevitch neatly summari4es, 'il$omirs$i2s defence in the face of attac$ #as *that a strictly factual reading of J/ragments2 is inherently misguided, because it is a boo$ of traumatic early memories, and that the bro$en and dislocated nature of such memories re"uires them to be ta$en on their o#n terms, as evidence of the trauma they record+ C<2D %f this is so, then the memories can only be *evidence+ of 'il$omirs$i2s sub(ectivity, in #hat as 3ourevitch points out is a circular argument that rules out any appeal to external or ob(ective proof %n this respect, elements of 'il$omirs$i and 6ernstein2s method and 'il$omirs$i2s practical example of Fragments may be seen to chime #ith the rise of memory and trauma as categories of discourse ,o#ever, critical analysis of the 'il$omirs$i affair has been almost entirely censorious, suggesting that the theory of childhood memory as historical source is a step too far 5ost articles on Fragments give serious consideration to the "uestion of #hether it matters that 'il$omirs$i2s memoirs do not correspond #ith his actual past, and the vast ma(ority conclude that it does, not#ithstanding their traumatic value Lne line of argument from the critics is that false memoirs are corrosive to human society, as they erode our faith in truth 3ourevitch, for example, calls 'il$omirs$i2s pro(ect an act of *memory theft+, and a *fec$less literary adventure+ ,e paraphrases 3eorge Lr#ell; *every time #e fail to use #ords #ith care for their truthfulness, the honesty of everything #e use #ords to express becomes progressively forsa$en+ CH8D 1hristopher 6igsby concurs, calling Fragments and other problematic memoirs acts of *betrayal+ C%emem+ering 9>:D /or 6igsby, the inherent instability of memory ma$es it an even more precious commodity; *'hen FmemoryG is appropriated, falsified, such thefts and deceptions are no misdemeanours !hey #or$ to

=0: deny the common ground on #hich #e stand and #hich is the necessary foundation for present actions and future prospects+ C9>HD Such outrage perhaps overstates the potential of literature to cause harm in the #ider #orld Bevertheless it usefully points to the #ay Fragments reveals assumptions of ethical responsibility in #riting -nother criticism based on such assumptions is made by 1arl !ighe, #ho finds the many episodes of horror and cruelty in Fragments to be obscene and even sado.masochistic !ighe is angered by the effect of these scenes; *'il$omirs$i trades on the gullibility of the reader, the #illingness to believe all horrors+ C?<D !ighe points out that there are glaring inconsistencies and improbabilities in these episodes /or example, the excrement on the barrac$s floor that 'il$omirs$i2s friend 7an$l recommends he stand in to #arm his feet #ould in all li$elihood have been icy li"uid, since most of the child inmates had dysentery or diarrhoea *!o say that this is unscrupulous play #ith the reader2s #illing belief and sympathetic emotion is an understatement !his is a $ind of obscenity+ C?<D ,o#ever, this criticism only gains its validity through the benefit of hindsight 6y lin$ing ethical responsibility to probability in narration, !ighe is perhaps on sha$y ground %f Fragments had been published as fiction, #ould his opinion have been the same) !ighe2s outrage is perhaps more the result of indignation at having been deceived than any clear ethics of representation -nother line of criticism is based on literary conventions 'il$omirs$i is held to have bro$en 0e(eune2s *autobiographical pact+ or contract #ith the reader ,e is also ta$en to tas$ for transgressing the boundaries of genre 8obert Eaglestone, for example, complains that Fragments is both *parasitic+ on, and a *parody+ of, the genres of fiction and memoir C=2>D Susan Suleiman, mean#hile, critici4es the boo$ for denying the existence of categories; *'il$omirs$i2s boo$ does not lay #ith categories K it obfuscates them, #hich is not the same thing !he problem #ith Fragments, as a text, is precisely that it does not recogni4e, or at any rate does not admit, its o#n fictionality+ C=H?, emphasis in originalD Suleiman here seems to demand an element of self. consciousness or self.reflexivity, and this is indeed #hat is lac$ing in Fragments and #hich is so prevalent in #or$s by Sebald and /oer examined in later chapters of the present study

=0< /or other critics, ho#ever, form and genre are beside the point Lmer 6artov reminds us that earlier ,olocaust memoirists, such as !adeus4 6oro#s$i, %da /in$, and %mre SertQs4, fictionali4ed their accounts to varying extents #ithout causing #idespread outrage !he reason for this is that they #ere verifiably actually there in the camps and ghettos, rather than safe in, for example, S#iss foster.homes *,ence,+ 6artov #rites, *the point is not merely fiction or truth, but presence or absence+ C98D -ccording to this argument, our response to Fragments is conditioned by basic assumptions of authenticity based on a reverence for the eye.#itness #ho #as present at the event in "uestion !hus, the value of a #riter li$e 6oro#s$i is that his readers may vicariously #itness the event for themselves through his text, #hereas in 'il$omirs$i2s case they merely gain access to the author2s imagination !his argument is based on a further assumption; that 6oro#s$i2s memory can give us accurate access to the past ,o#ever, if one ta$es the opposite vie#, that memory is intrinsically unstable, partial, and untrust#orthy, it is possible to argue that the veracity or other#ise of Fragments is irrelevant 5ichael 6ernard.Donals ta$es this stance, arguing that 'il$omirs$i2s text should be ta$en as a reminder that all remembrance is an illusion; F G the effect of the narrative in Fragments is not to remember the ,olocaust K #e #ere not there, so #e cannot remember it 8ather, in the face of the event2s retreat into an irrecuperable past, #e are re"uired to bear #itness to a trauma that forced 6runo D[sse$$er to choose the language of the disaster to stand in for a disaster of his o#n 1learly his story doesn2t give us access to the historical details he purports to describe 6ut it does provide us #ith access to the structure of #itness and the ris$s involved in testimony C=9:D 6ernard.Donals ta$es the position that the very nature of CtraumaticD memory precludes any need to (ustify itself in relation to historical truth, #hich is precisely the argument put for#ard by 'il$omirs$i and 6ernstein in their theory of childhood memory and history 5oreover, by focusing on the *structure of #itness+, 6ernard.Donals elides the ethical and epistemological problems of historical $no#ledge in order to promote testimony as a genre -s a conse"uence, despite seeming to denigrate memory for its inability to access to the past, 6ernard.Donals in fact e,alts it for the #ay it strips a#ay the so.called illusion that there are historical *facts+ to #hich one may lay claim !his focus on memory.as.testimony has its roots in Shoshana /elman and Dori 0aub2s Testimony: Crises of )itnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History C=??2D

=0H -sserting that *our era can precisely be defined as the age of testimony+ C<D, /elman and 0aub emphasi4e both the therapeutic and epistemological value of ta$ing the voice of the #itness seriously 0aub cites the case of a survivor #ho #itnessed the -usch#it4 uprising !his #oman, no# in late middle age, remembered that four chimneys #ere exploded during the action, but historians, #hen sho#n her videotaped testimony, pointed out that in fact it #as only one, and thus considered her account invalid ,o#ever, for the psychoanalyst and ,olocaust survivor 0aub, factual inaccuracy does not #ea$en her testimony /or him, the important point is the effect on the #oman of the enormity of the event, the incredible fact that anyone managed to rebel at all in such conditions /or 0aub, she *#as testifying not simply to empirical historical facts, but to the very secret of survival and of resistance to extermination+ C*6earing+ H2D ,ere #e can note 0aub2s certainty that the historians are #rong in their emphasis on ob(ective truth, and his confidence that there is a more nebulous *secret+ to be unveiled through close attention to the nature of testimony 3illian 6anner, citing the same chimney example, agrees #ith this position in her boo$ Holocaust Literature: &chulz, Levi, & iegelman and the !emory of the 7ffence C2000D 6anner argues; *%t is in the meeting.place of discrepant memories that #e #ill find truths #hich transcend the merely historical+ C=9D !he promotion of memory over history could not be clearer 6anner dra#s heavily on 0a#rence 0anger2s Holocaust Testimonies: The %uins of !emory C=??=D, in #hich 0anger urges that #e should learn to *hear+ the voices of survivors, as transmitted in the video intervie#s collected by the /ortunoff Pro(ect, rather than pro(ect our o#n stories of survival and heroism onto them /or 0anger, close attention to both their #ords and manner of speech reveals troubling and unresolved problems of *divided+ and *diminished+ selves for #hom the ,olocaust #ill never be over % deal #ith this argument in more detail in the next chapter 1ommentators li$e 0aub, 0anger and 6anner, then, privilege the testimony of survivors over the pro(ections and vie#points of those #ho come after 5oreover, for these #riters, the $ey attribute of testimony is its affective force 8ather than criticising emotions for obstructing rational thought, as traditional historiography might Csee ,ilberg, aboveD, the affective po#er of traumatic memories is held to offer a $ey to the experience of the ,olocaust unobtainable by documents and ob(ective hindsight Paradoxically, ho#ever, the extreme traumatic nature of this experience leads to the claim that it #as not #itnessed as it occurred -s noted in 1hapter = of the present

=0> study, 0aub argues that *the inherently incomprehensible and deceptive psychological structure of Fthe ,olocaustG precluded its o#n #itnessing, even by its very victims+ C*Event+ 80D /or 0aub, it is only in the later moment of testimony that the event is #itnessed for the first time Such a contention is based on a problematic vie# of traumatic memory #hich holds that all experience is inherently belated !estimony, trauma, and memory are thus inter.related concepts in a line of thin$ing #hich moves from the valorisation of ,olocaust #itnesses, to an emphasis on sub(ectivity and affect, to the possibility of a *6in(amin 'il$omirs$i+, and finally to the defence of Fragments by 6ernard.Donals on abstract theoretical grounds !his entire frame of reference is criti"ued in an important article by -ndre# S 3ross and 5ichael 7 ,offman, *5emory, -uthority, and %dentity; ,olocaust Studies in the 0ight of the 'il$omirs$i Debate+ C200:D 3ross and ,offman analyse #hat the 'il$omirs$i affair reveals about the critical investment in testimony as a genre !hey argue that the affective po#er of testimony has become *authority+, replacing *authenticity+ as the means by #hich texts are evaluated !hus, *#e might provisionally define Jauthority2 as a sub(ect.position made un"uestionable by virtue of its suffering+ C99D 3ross and ,offman see$ to defend historical $no#ledge against this gro#ing affective authority of testimony and memory Bevertheless, although the emphasis on memory may be *at the price F G of historical ignorance+ C9>D, it does not necessarily follo# that the integrity of ,olocaust studies is threatened; !he inaccuracy of F'il$omirs$i2s memoriesG does not plunge us into a historical crisis for the same reason that any number of ma$e.believe Bapoleons do not discredit 'aterloo 8ather, unstable memories plunge those #ho identify #ith those memories into a crisis of identity %f #e identified #ith F'il$omirs$iG as a victim, #e are also implicated in his delusions of victimi4ation C:2D !hat is, by privileging the affective po#er of testimony #e ris$ losing ob(ective critical (udgement, as seen in exemplary fashion during the initial reception of Fragments 3ross and ,offman go on to suggest that this over.emphasis on the individual suffering sub(ect may perniciously obfuscate or divert attention from the #ider socio.political sphere, reducing the possibility of usefully addressing such problems as %sraeli foreign policy and ho# the United States should deal #ith its legacy of slavery 3ross and ,offman2s agenda reveals a fear that *history+, in the sense of attention to the #ider

=08 picture, is under threat from *memory+, in its restricted focus on the victim %t also serves to remind us of the high sta$es attendant on this sometimes arcane philosophical debate Fragments, then, has served as a test case and meeting point for the memory.history debate - very different text #hich nevertheless highlights similar problems attendant on emphasising memory over history is -nne 5ichaels2 Fugitive Pieces C=??HD 0i$e Fragments, this novel centres on the memories of a child survivor of the ,olocaust -s in 'il$omirs$i2s text, it relies on a trope of fragmentation, in #hich bro$en *pieces+ of memory are posited as symptoms of trauma to be healed through narrativi4ation ,o#ever, #here Fragments ma$es great claims for memory C#hich are at their very root deceptiveD, Fugitive Pieces advances more subtle arguments, figuring memory as aD transmissible, bD redemptive, and cD a$in to #itness -ll three of these are challenged in the follo#ing analysis -nne 5ichaels #as born in !oronto in =?<8 5arita 3rim#ood #rites in the online Literary Encyclo edia that 5ichaels *has consistently refused to let details of her personal life shift the focus of attention a#ay from her #riting+ and has al#ays declined *to supply any but the most basic biographical information+ ,o#ever, some details have emerged !he 7,ford Com anion to Canadian Literature states that 5ichaels2 father #as a *8ussian immigrant+, #hile 3rim#ood says that he *came from a Polish. 7e#ish family and left the Polish.8ussian border in =?9= at the age of =9 to settle in 1anada+ Unfortunately, #e do not $no# the extent to #hich 5ichaels identifies #ith this 7e#ish heritage, nor #hether other relatives #ere left behind to suffer under Ba4i or Soviet regimes !hus her relationship to the ,olocaust may only be inferred from her #ritings, #hich consist of three volumes of poetry CThe )eight of 7ranges F=?8HG, !iner6s Pond F=??=G, and &-in .ivers F=???GD, a fe# articles, and Fugitive Pieces itself, to date her only novel Cthough a second, The )inter <ault, is due in 200?D -cross this oeuvre one theme is ever.present; memory K its meanings, uses, and metaphorical utility %ndeed, a preoccupation #ith methods of remembrance informs the very structure of Fugitive Pieces %n the prologue, unnamed as such, a third.person narrator states that although *countless manuscripts+ from 'orld 'ar %% #ere lost or destroyed, some #ere

=0? nevertheless *recovered, by circumstance alone+ %nstead of such #artime artifacts, ho#ever, the novel presents us #ith the ostensible memoirs of a child survivor of the ,olocaust, #ritten in the =?80s and =??0s, #hich are recovered by a young acolyte after the survivor2s death !hus Fugitive Pieces is narrated first by the survivor, a poet named 7a$ob 6eer, and then by his literary executor, 6en, himself the son of CdifferentD survivors !his structure firmly embeds memory into the narrative and plot 6en $eeps 7a$ob2s memory alive through the retrieval and publication of his #ritings 6en2s parents, ,olocaust survivors #ho $ept largely silent about their experiences, are memoriali4ed in their son2s account 5ean#hile, 7a$ob preserves the memory of his adoptive father, the archaeologist -thos 8oussos, by completing and publishing his unfinished #or$s 7a$ob also memoriali4es his sister, 6ella, from #hom he #as irrevocably separated during the Ba4i raid that $illed his parents, but #ho remains as a ghostly presence in his (ournal /inally, -thos himself, in his boo$ *6earing /alse 'itness+, see$s to preserve the memory of 6is$upin, the archaeological site desecrated by the Ba4is because it contradicted their account of *-ryan+ history !his emphasis on the preservation of memory is sustained throughout the novel in archaeological metaphors that 5ichaels, through her narrators, nevertheless attempts to disavo# as such ,ere, for example, 7a$ob is musing on ho# the memory of ,olocaust victims may be preserved; %t2s no metaphor to feel the influence of the dead in the #orld, (ust as it2s no metaphor to hear the radiocarbon chronometer, the 3eiger counter amplifying the faint breathing of roc$, fifty thousand years old Cli$e the faint thump from behind the #omb #allD %t is no metaphor to #itness the astonishing fidelity of minerals magneti4ed, even after hundreds of millions of years, pointing to the magnetic pole, minerals that have never forgotten magma #hose cooling off has left them forever desirous 'e long for placeA but place itself longs ,uman memory is encoded in air currents and river sediment Es$ers of as$ #ait to be scooped up, lives reconstituted C<9D !his passage attempts to anthropomorphi4e nature /roma Oeitlin glosses it as follo#s; *Bature does not forget 0andscape is personifiedA it can be #ounded by destructive upheavals F GA and it, too, solicits grief and empathy+ C=8>D 6ut if nature does not forget, it must have some $ind of *memory+ 8oc$s may carry the *trace+ of radiation from years ago, but is this simple phenomenon really a$in to the complex #or$ings of CcollectiveD human memory) 'hat exactly does river sediment *remember+)

==0 Else#here, 5ichaels has developed this idea of *geologic memory+ in relation to architectural stone %n an article published in =??>, she #rites; *0i$e human memory, geologic memory can be a #ea$ness or a strength %f building materials Jremember2 the "uarry or the forge, so a site remembers its past !here2s nothing mystical in thisA it2s a pragmatic analysis of forces+ C*Phantom 0imbs+D 5ichaels2 disavo#al of the metaphorical and mystical conse"uences of her ideas does not bear sustained analysis 7a$ob2s #ishful thin$ing in the passage above, in #hich ,olocaust victims2 memories are someho# preserved in air, mud and roc$, seems to suggest that their deaths are not absolute, particularly if a #riter li$e him is around to *scoop up+ the *ash+ and *reconstitute+ their lives in prose 'ith this passage, 5ichaels seems to suggest that the very configuration of the #orld and the cosmos #ill ensure that the ,olocaust is never forgotten ,o#ever, by this to$en, all deaths and catastrophes, being li$e#ise part of the #ider scheme of things, #ill e"ually live on foreverA this leaves the author open to the charge of ,olocaust relativism !hough this is probably not her intention, it is thereA it results from her attempt to conflate poetic sensibility #ith scientific research, to try to understand the ,olocaust by situating it in the $no#n #orld of phenomena 5ichaels2 approach also relies on problematic notions of secondary or vicarious #itnessing Else#here in Fugitive Pieces she goes further in her claims for the po#er of memory %n the follo#ing passage, 7a$ob is pondering ho# meaning may be extracted from the ,olocaust; !he event is only meaningful if the coordination of time and space is #itnessed 'itnessed by those #ho lived near the incinerators, #ithin the radius of smell 6y those #ho lived outside the camp fence, or stood outside the chamber doors 6y those #ho stepped a fe# feet to the right on the station platform "y those #ho #ere +orn a generation after C=H2, emphasis mineD ,ere 7a$ob appears to e"uate survivors of the camps #ith people born after the #ar -s the former dra# on memory, the latter on imagination, this implies e"uivalence bet#een the t#o faculties 0i$e 'il$omirs$i2s claim that his *memories+ are valid regardless of their correspondence to historical fact, this conflation of memory and imagination under the heading of #itness obfuscates important ethical distinctions bet#een truth and fiction !his in turn leads to an implied claim that the author of fiction about the ,olocaust has the same status as one #ho gives testimony first.hand 6ut the "uestion

=== of #ho are the *true #itnesses+ to the event must al#ays be seen in the light of Primo 0evi2s distinction bet#een the sommersi Cdro#nedD and the salvati CsavedD 0evi #rote; % must repeat K #e, the survivors, are not the true #itnesses !his is an uncomfortable notion, of #hich % have become conscious little by little, reading the memoirs of others and reading mine at a distance of years 'e survivors are not only an exiguous but also an anomalous minority; #e are those #ho by their prevarications or abilities or good luc$ did not touch bottom !hose #ho did so, those #ho sa# the 3orgon, have not returned to tell about it or have returned mute, but they are the J5uslims2, the submerged, the complete #itnesses, the ones #hose deposition #ould have a general significance !hey are the rule, #e are the exception C.ro#ned H9.:D %f even 0evi, as a salvati -usch#it4 survivor, refuses to claim *complete+ status as a #itness, ho# can those #ho #ere not alive then, such as 6en, or 5ichaels herself, do so) %n this light, the suggestion that the event can be made *meaningful+ through second.hand #itnessing appears specious and presumptuous Bicola Sing, analysing 5ichaels2 passage "uoted above, addresses the relation bet#een 0evi and 5ichaels as follo#s; ,ere he F7a$obG implicitly agrees #ith Primo 0evi, for #hom the survivors #ere not the true #itnesses, but #ho nevertheless felt the responsibility to bear #itness %t is a member of the Jgeneration after2, his student 6en, #ho finds his memoirs and thus becomes his #itness !he author thus builds the "uestion of J#ho bears #itness for the #itness)2 into the structure of her narrative C*'e 1ome+ =09D !hough Fugitive Pieces does indeed build vicarious #itnessing into its narrative, there is surely a difference bet#een 0evi2s position as survivor and 6en2s position as the son of survivors 0evi2s argument that he is not a true #itness highlights the fact that he did not e, erience the ,olocaust in the same #ay as, for example, someone #ho died in the gas chamber %t does not deny that he #itnessed, in the sense of seeing #ith his o#n eyes, #hat happened at -usch#it4 0evi2s position should be considered "ualitatively different from that of 'il$omirs$i or 5ichaels, something #hich more self.reflexive texts, such as those by Sebald and /oer, implicitly and explicitly ac$no#ledge !hese latter authors self.consciously problemati4e their status as #itnesses #hile nevertheless exploring their urge to bear #itness for the #itness, as later chapters of the present study #ill sho#

==2

%nterestingly, the claims of second.hand #itness do have some medical bac$ing David Pillemer, a Professor of Developmental Psychology, cites clinical evidence that secondary #itnesses, for example those #ho sa# the events of *?I==+ on television, or #ho #atched films of nuclear fallout in ,iroshima, can suffer from post.traumatic stress disorder in the same #ay as those #ho experienced the events more directly !his is because they create ne# memories for themselves #hilst #atching the material Pillemer #rites; *@ivid memories, once created, carry #ith them an emotional intensity that energi4es future beliefs and behaviors, and this appears to be the case #hether the trauma #as direct or indirect+ C=:8D -nother scientific article on the sub(ect notes that the =??: edition of the .iagnostic and &tatistical !anual of !ental .isorders CDS5. %@D changed the criteria for trauma *!o "ualify as trauma exposed, one no longer needs to be a direct victim -s long as one is confronted #ith a situation that involves threat to the physical integrity of one2s self or others and one experiences the emotions of fear, horror, or helplessness, then the experience counts as exposure to a P!SD. "ualifying stressor+ C5cBally et al :>, emphasis mineD %f this is so, it is possible to argue that 5ichaels2 representative of the *generation after+, 6en, by being *confronted+ daily #ith the after.effects of ,olocaust trauma in his parents, experiences a comparable trauma that is (ust as clinically valid Bevertheless this must be distinguished from #itnessing the experience as survivors did !o deny this differentiation leads inexorably to#ards (ustifying the actions of a 'il$omirs$i - more subtle example of the #ay the problem of #itness is foregrounded in 5ichaels2 novel is in the circumstances of 7a$ob2s ,olocaust experience !he little boy does not see the murder of his parents, but he hears it 'hen soldiers raid his home, he hides; % #as still small enough to vanish behind the #allpaper in the cupboard, cramming my head side#ays bet#een cho$ing plaster and beams, eyelashes scraping F G !he burst door 'ood ripped from hinges, crac$ing li$e ice under the shouts Boises never heard before, torn from my father2s mouth !hen silence 5y mother had been se#ing a button on my shirt She $ept her buttons in a chipped saucer % heard the rim of the saucer in circles on the floor % heard the spray of buttons, little #hite teeth CH.>D

==9 !hus 7a$ob hears various noises before emerging to find his parents lying dead !his #ill haunt him in a specific #ayA as he says later, *% did not #itness the most important events of my life+ C=>D /or Dalia Sandiyoti, this statement is *paradigmatic of the hidden or very young child survivor, #ho, unli$e adult survivors of atrocities, cannot bear #itness in the same #ay and al#ays has to imagine the invisible+ C9=0D !his is reminiscent of 'il$omirs$i2s claims that memories of child survivors deserve different and more sympathetic treatment than those of adults, and that memory and imagination carry e"ual #eight 5ean#hile, in 5ichaels2 schema, memory is not only analogous to Ctraumati4edD #itness, but also, crucially, transmissi+le !he past is thought to be transmitted to us in the present, #hether through the radiation of roc$s, or the *memory+ of nature, as in the examples above Such ideas of transmission or transference are also expressed in Fugitive Pieces as a poetic vision of memories passed on through love, #hich involves a transcendence of the border bet#een self and other 7a$ob, describing his love for his second #ife, #rites; *% cross over the boundary of s$in into 5ichaela2s memories, into her childhood+ C=8<D 5ean#hile, according to 6en, the frontier is crossed in the opposite direction during the act of biography; *!he "uest to discover another2s psyche, to absorb another2s motives as your o#n, is a lover2s "uest+ C222D Lr it may be a simple matter of $no#ledge %n order to emphasi4e ho# #ell he understands his #ife, 6en claims; *% $no# #hat she remembers % $no# her memories+ C28<D !his appears presumptuousA else#here the process verges on the appropriative -thos, in desperate sympathy for young 7a$ob2s nightmares, says; *7a$ob, % long to steal your memories from you #hile you2re sleeping, to siphon off your dreams+ C?2D !hese are all moments of over.identification, fantasies in #hich the other is transferred into the self, or the self into the other %ndeed, they are reminiscent of 5ax Scheler2s ideas of *heteropathic+ and *idiopathic+ identification, #hich, as % sho#ed in 1hapter 2 of the present study, #ere disapproved of by Scheler himself, and later adopted by Sa(a Silverman only in terms of a radical sexual politics -s such, these modes of extreme identification are inappropriate models for ,olocaust representation #hen compared #ith 0a1aprian empathy, #hich see$s to maintain the border bet#een self and other rather than encourage its breach

==: !he most extreme claim in Fugitive Pieces for memory transference, and conse"uently of over.identification, arises from 7a$ob2s ,olocaust research ,ere he is considering the fate of those #ho had the tas$ of exhuming corpses; 'hen the prisoners #ere forced to dig up the mass graves, the dead entered them through their pores and #ere carried through their bloodstreams to their brains and hearts -nd through their blood into another generation !heir arms #ere into death up to the elbo#s, but not only into death K into music, into a memory of the #ay a husband or son leaned over his dinner, a #ife2s expression as she #atched her child in the bathA into beliefs, mathematical formulas, dreams -s they felt another man2s and another2s blood.soa$ed hair through their fingers, the diggers begged forgiveness -nd those lost lives made molecular passage into their hands C<2D 0ater, this grotes"ue idea is repeated more succinctly; *They dug the +odies out of the ground? They ut their +are hands not only into death, not only into the syru s and +acteria of the +ody, +ut into emotions, +eliefs, confessions? 7ne man6s memories then another6s, thousands #hose lives it #as their duty to imagine+ C2>?, emphasis in originalD -s memories and emotions do not, literally, remain #ith decaying corpses, and are therefore not available for *molecular+ transmission, this passage can only mean that the personal memories and emotions of the dead #ere Cre.Dcreated by the diggers, in fulfilment of their *duty to imagine+ the lives of the deceased 6y extension, 5ichaels implies that #e all have a duty to recreate, through invention, the thoughts of the dead, perhaps because they, murdered before their time, are unable to pass on their memories through normal channels !hus the pro(ect of #riting ,olocaust fiction is defended on ethical grounds 6ut by ma$ing such an extreme claim for the po#er of memory transmission, 5ichaels ris$s an ethically dubious identification #ith victims %n the next chapter % sho# ho# ' 3 Sebald avoids this problem by repeatedly stating, through the voice of his narrative persona, that he *could not imagine+ #hat it #as li$e for the victims of the past 5ichaels2 narrative suggests the opposite; that #e must try to imagine the unimaginable !here is an important difference bet#een being #illing to confront the horrors of the past in a general #ay, and over.identifying #ith the perceived suffering of victims to the extent that emotions over#helm rational thought !he empathic balance bet#een ob(ectivity and sub(ectivity, distance and proximity, is unli$ely to be achieved by overstating the memorialising potential of memory transmission through such channels as roc$s, love, or blood -n over.emphasis on the transferable "ualities of memory is ultimately at the expense of more critical modes of

==< thought -s 3ross and ,offman argue in their criti"ue of the rise of memory as testimony; *transference, and experiential connection bet#een people, Fhas ta$en precedenceG over reference, the semantic connection bet#een symbol and event+ C9>D 5oreover, the tendency to see$ solace by such means, though understandable, must be resisted -s Sing says of 5ichaels2 theory of memory transmission through the blood, *the suggestion of a $ind of immortality stri$es me as a false consolation+ C*'e 1ome+ =0HD -nd it may even obfuscate the very events to #hich it refersA 5iddleton and 'oods argue that 5ichaels2 approach constitutes a *consolatory fantasy that actually hides some of the horror+ C:0D Sue @ice, analysing similarly *transcendent+ moments in Fugitive Pieces, concludes that *this seems to be a #ay of trying to #ring aesthetic and meaningful comfort from an event #hich offers no redemption of any $ind+ C?D ,o#ever, 5ichaels2 central theme is precisely redemption, figured as achievable through the po#er of memory 7a$ob2s life as a ,olocaust survivor is one of mental suffering eventually redeemed by dra#ing on his past to #rite valuable poetry, and by finding love #ith a second #ife to #hom he can unburden himself 5ean#hile, 6en2s anguish, resulting from his emotionally stunted childhood, is redeemed by his #or$ of preserving 7a$ob2s memory, #hich in turn leads to 6en2s reali4ation of ho# to become happy #ith his #ife C*% see that % must give #hat % most need+ F2?:GD %n an article #ritten in the same year as Fugitive Pieces, 5ichaels muses on the redemptive po#er of memory; 5emory, li$e love, gains strength through restatement, reaffirmation, in a culture, through ritual, tradition, stories, art 5emory courts our better selves %t helps us recogni4e the importance of deed; #e learn from pleasure (ust as #e learn from pain -nd #hen memory evo$es consideration of #hat might have been or been prevented, memory becomes redemptive -s Eehudi -michai #rote; *to remember is a $ind of hope+ C*1leopatra2s 0ove+ =8=D !his brings to mind Eerushalmi2s vie# of collective 7e#ish memory, #hich is here seen as a force po#erful enough to redeem the past %n Fugitive Pieces, 7a$ob argues that this "uality stems from its oppositional relation to *,istory+; ,istory is amoral; events occurred 6ut memory is moral; #hat #e consciously remember is #hat our conscience remembers ,istory is the !otenbuch, the 6oo$ of the Dead, $ept by the administrators of the camps 5emory is the

==H 5emorbucher, the names of those to be mourned, read aloud in the synagogue C=98D !hus 5ichaels, through 7a$ob, refutes ,ilberg2s dictum that documentary evidence is the only #orth#hile source for understanding the past 6ut the example given of the !otenbuch is problematic in several #ays /irstly, if #e extend the abstract concept *history+ to its practitioners, historians, 5ichaels may appear to be aligning them #ith genocidal Ba4i administrators Secondly, this !otenbuch #as not amoral as suchA it #as compiled #ith an agenda in mind, albeit one no# usually considered immoral !hirdly, can it really be true to say that anyone, even the most ob(ective historian, even a ,ilberg, can #rite #ith complete detachment, #ith no operation of conscience) 'hy is conscience only available to those #ho mourn in the synagogue and not to those #ho investigate facts and figures) Should history therefore be abandoned in favour of memory on moral grounds) 6oth Fugitive Pieces and Fragments, then, claim that the po#er of memory should ta$e precedence over the historical facts of presence and absence !hese texts sho# that the aggrandi4ement of memory leads to#ards a morally na\ve and ethically dubious #orld. vie# #hich in turn creates problematic representations of the ,olocaust 6y creating a false opposition bet#een memory and history, 'il$omirs$i and 5ichaels reduce the available options to a star$ choice bet#een over.identification and over.ob(ectification !hus both 'il$omirs$i and 5ichaels arrive at a "uestionable over.identification #ith victims rather than an empathic balance bet#een proximity and distance !he follo#ing chapters examine texts #hich to varying extents resolve this problem through self. reflexive narrative techni"ues

==> Chapter / A simultaneous gesture of pro)imity and distance: the empathic narrative persona in W0 '0 1e ald,s 23aul -ereyter4 and Austerlitz ' 3 Sebald2s prose narratives exist at the borderline of the novel form !heir self. conscious hybridity, combining memoir, historical account, travelogue and fiction, may be seen as pushing the boundaries of genre 6ut Sebald2s use of a narrator.figure #ith some biographical correspondence to the author, #ho ta$es part in the action, enables an even greater crossing of borders; those bet#een past and present, memory and history, and current and previous generations %n this chapter, % argue that through the use of #hat % call an *empathic narrative persona+, Sebald engages #ith, and to an extent transcends, the ethical and epistemological problems of ,olocaust representation, in particular the dangers of identification #ith victims % focus on t#o representative texts; the story of *Paul 6ereyter+ from .ie Ausge#anderten C=??9A translated as The Emigrants in =??HD, and the novel.length Austerlitz C200=D !hese examples have useful correlations, not least their shared concern #ith exile and loss Sebald himself noted the connection; *Eou might almost describe FAusterlitzG as a se"uel to The Emigrants+ C6igsby, *%n 1onversation+ =H2D 6y situating these narratives in the context of the Sebaldian persona, % sho# ho# the author self.reflexively foregrounds the process of 0a1aprian empathy by establishing close personal connection #ith the victims of history #hile simultaneously constructing texts that are characteri4ed by several layers of structural and epistemological distance %n this #ay he approaches the horrors of the ,olocaust in an obli"ue manner that neither over.identifies #ith nor ob(ectifies its victims !hat Sebald #as conscious of such ethical issues is sho#n by his comments in intervie#s /or example; -nything one does in the form of #riting, and especially prose fiction, is not an innocent enterprise %t is a morally "uestionable enterprise because one is, of course in the business K ho#ever honest one attempts to be as a #riter K of arranging things in such a #ay that the role of the narrator is not an entirely despicable one !here is no #ay around this F G 'riting is by definition a morally dubious occupation, % thin$, because one appropriates and manipulates the lives of others for certain ends 'hen it is a "uestion of the lives of those

==8 #ho have survived persecution the process of appropriation can be very invasive C6igsby, *%n 1onversation+ =<9D Bevertheless, the sub(ect central to much of Sebald2s #or$ is precisely *the lives of those #ho have survived persecution+ So the "uestion is; ho# does he deal #ith the problems of appropriation and invasion, and #hat part does the *role of the narrator+ play in this negotiation) !he *%+.figure is a ma(or element in Sebald2s #or$ !his narrator imposes himself on the first pages of The Emigrants, The %ings of &aturn, and Austerlitz, and only #aits until the second section of <ertigo, *-ll2estero+, to ma$e his presence felt ,is multiple functions include the describing of hallucinatory travels through Suffol$ and 1entral Europe, including a return to the village of his childhoodA the recounting of (ourneys of the mind through philosophy, literature and historyA acts of meeting, listening to and recording the memories of exiles and emigrants, and their friends and relatives, both real and fictionalA and the investigation of sites of both historical and personal importance !he narrator.figure brings all these elements together, in a po#erful personal vision of destruction and decay Structurally, mean#hile, he narrates the past of his travels and encounters, #hile simultaneously appearing as the present #riter of his narration ,e offers personal biographical information; *%n the second half of the =?H0s % travelled repeatedly from England to 6elgium+ CAusterlitz =DA *Until my t#enty.sixth year % had never been further a#ay from home than a five. or six.hour train (ourney+ CEmigrants =:?D ,e also recounts detailed insights into his physical and psychological condition, fearing at one stage that *mental paralysis #as ta$ing hold of me+ C<ertigo 9HD, #hile at another being *alarmed by #hat % feared #as the progressive decline of my eyesight+ CAusterlitz :>D Despite these details he remains obscure, a *shado#y pronoun+ C-tlas 289D, a *spectral annunciatory presence that engenders the texts+ C6lac$ler ?9D Susan Sontag argues that Sebald2s narrator is a relatively familiar figure, *the promeneur solitaire of many generations of romantic literature+ C9D -nother #ay #e might situate him in terms of tradition is by comparison #ith 'alter 6en(amin2s *Storyteller+, #ho, li$e the Sebaldian narrator, embeds himself in the stories he tells /or 6en(amin, storytelling

==?

does not aim to convey the pure essence of the thing, li$e information or a report %t sin$s the thing into the life of the storyteller, in order to bring it out of him again !hus traces of the storyteller cling to the story the #ay the handprints of the potter cling to the clay vessel Storytellers tend to begin their story #ith a presentation of the circumstances in #hich they themselves have learned #hat is to follo# C?=D Ln one level, this is exactly #hat the Sebaldian *%+.figure does %n %ings of &aturn, it is the narrator2s #al$ across Suffol$ that frames the story Austerlitz begins #ith an account of the circumstances by #hich the narrator came to be in the -nt#erp #aiting. room in #hich he first meets the protagonist 5ean#hile, part of the function of the narrator of The Emigrants is to sho# ho# he came upon the stories he is to tell ,o#ever, this personalisation is but one element of the Sebaldian narrator, #ho as this chapter #ill sho# is a complex and innovative construction designed for the particular situation of the late t#entieth century #riter #ho loo$s bac$ on that century2s horrors %n order more clearly to define the Sebaldian narrator it may help to compare his details #ith the author2s biography, as the t#o are so intimately connected 'infried 3eorg 5aximilian Sebald, *5ax+ to friends and colleagues, #as born on =8 5ay =?:: in 'ertach im -llgMu, a village in the 6avarian -lps of 3ermany 6efore he reached double figures his family moved to nearby Sonthofen 0arge numbers of Sebald2s forebears had immigrated to Be# Eor$ in the =?20s, including all his mother2s siblings Sebald has described his parents as being from *conventional, 1atholic, anti.communist bac$grounds+ C7aggi HD ,is father found advancement in the army during the Ba4i period and participated in the Polish campaign at the beginning of 'orld 'ar %% ,is late return in =?:>, after being held as a prisoner of #ar in /rance, meant that he initially seemed a stranger to his infant son -fter this difficult beginning the t#o had a strained relationship 5oreover, the father2s refusal to spea$ about his #artime experiences #as a $ey factor in his son2s increasing interest in the sub(ect Sebald #as once as$ed #hether he ever resolved matters #ith his father, and responded; *'e never had that conversation Eou didn2t $no# #hat your parents had done, but, perhaps more decisively, you didn2t even $no# #hat they had seen or not seen -nd the "uestion, to mind no#, is; 'hat did they #itness) 'hat did they see)+ C6igsby, *%n 1onversation+ =:9D !hus #hile Sebald appears to have given up on ever finding out #hether his father too$ part in atrocities, he has transmuted his personal conflicts and intellectual curiosity

=20 into his #riting, both in the prose narratives analysed in this chapter and in his analysis of post.#ar 3erman consciousness, as in the lectures on *-ir 'ar and 0iterature+ #hich appeared in English, alongside other essays, as 7n The $atural History of .estruction C2009D /rom =?H9.H Sebald studied 3erman and comparative literature in 3ermany and S#it4erland 'hile at /reiburg University he follo#ed the /ran$furt trial of former -usch#it4 personnel, and experienced an a#a$ening to the recent history he had previously ignored Disenchanted #ith central Europe, from =?HH.>0 he #or$ed as a Le-tor or 3erman language assistant at the University of 5anchester, apart from a year schoolteaching in S#it4erland ,e married an -ustrian, Ute, in =?H>A they had one daughter, -nna, #ho became a teacher %n =?>0 he settled permanently in England, ta$ing a (ob at the University of East -nglia in Bor#ich as a 0ecturer in 3erman 0iterature -part from a brief stint at the 3oethe %nstitute in 5unich during =?><, he remained for the rest of his life at UE-, receiving a Personal 1hair in European 0iterature in =?88 ,aving hitherto published only academic material, Sebald began to #rite more personal #or$ in the late =?80s, beginning #ith the long poem $ach der $atur: Ein Elementargedicht C=?88D, translated as After $ature C2002D /ragments of prose that he had been assembling began to appear in print, progressively increasing in narrative coherence &ch#indel? (efChle C=??0D #as translated as <ertigo C=???DA .ie Ausge#anderten C=??9D as The Emigrants C=??HDA and .ie %inge des &aturn: Eine Englische )allfahrt C=??<D as The %ings of &aturn C=??8D 'hen visited by the #riter 7ames -tlas in =???, he #as living in *a redbric$ @ictorian manor #ith tall #indo#s and a manicured la#n in a suburban cul.de.sac on the outs$irts of Bor#ich+ C-tlas 288D Sebald died in a car crash on =: December 200=, shortly after the publication of Austerlitz, a boo$ that came closer to the form of a novel than any of his previous #or$s Cam o &anto, a collection of prose fragments and essays, appeared posthumously in 2009, and #as translated into English in 200< /or comparison, a partial *biography+ of the Sebaldian narrator may be constructed by referring across all four complete prose narratives /or example, #e learn about his place of birth during the long final section of <ertigo, *%l ritorno in patria+, #hich recounts a visit to the 3erman village of *'+, *#here % had not been since my childhood+ C=>=D %n the *Paul 6ereyter+ section of The Emigrants, mean#hile, #e hear

=2= about the narrator2s later childhood in the nearby to#n of *S+ !hese t#o single.letter to#ns, #hich appear throughout his boo$s, #ould appear to refer to Sebald2s real childhood homes of 'ertach im -llgMu and Sonthofen, yet according to the author they *have more of a symbolic significance than anything F G in the texts they are in fact imaginary locations+ C6igsby, *%n 1onversation+ =:=D 'hile this statement may be influenced by a desire not to offend or compromise the real inhabitants of 'ertach and Sonthofen, it does not "uite account for the feebleness of the disguise %n each of the boo$s, the author2s biography offered by the publisher names his birthplace, so it does not ta$e a large amount of detective #or$ on the part of the reader to match it up to *'+ !his ambiguity of purpose is repeated in other aspects of the narrator2s biography ,is basic history usually, but not al#ays, matches that of Sebald %n the story of *5ax /erber+ in The Emigrants, the narrator arrives in 5anchester in =?HH, and describes ho# he *left the city in the summer of =?H? to follo# a plan % had long had of becoming a schoolteacher in S#it4erland+ C=>HD !hese facts chime perfectly #ith Sebald2s biography 6ut the *-ll2estero+ section of <ertigo contradicts this; *%n Lctober =?80 % travelled from England, #here % had then been living for nearly t#enty.five years+ C99D Sebald, and indeed the narrator of *5ax /erber+, had only been living there for fourteen years, so there is not even consistency bet#een the narratives, let alone bet#een Sebald and his narrator -nother dimension to the narrator2s biography is that of friends and relatives Sebald has confirmed that the story of *-mbros -del#arth+ in The Emigrants is based on his real great.uncle %n an intervie# he stated that, as in the published narrative, *there #as #ithin my family another story and that is the story of all my uncles and aunts #ho left southern 6avaria in the late 20s, during the 3reat Depression, to go to Be# Eor$+ C!urner 22D !he telling of *-mbros -del#arth+, as #ith most Sebaldian texts, involves using the narrator2s story as a framing narrative ,e recounts ho#, despite developing an *aversion to all things -merican+ in his teenage years, he *did eventually fly to Be#ar$ on the 2nd of 7anuary =?8= !his change of heart #as prompted by a photograph album of my mother2s #hich had come into my hands a fe# months earlier and #hich contained pictures "uite ne# to me of our relatives #ho had emigrated during the 'eimar years+ CEmigrants >=D ,o#ever, the photograph reproduced on this page,

=22 of a family at table, is not of Sebald2s relatives, a fact the reader could not $no# #ithout having read intervie#s #ith the author !he precision of the date and the apparent authentication provided by the photograph prove to be highly misleading Sebald has not (ust changed the names of his relatives to preserve anonymityA he has included photographs of un$no#n others to stand in for them Lther personal connections that flit in and out of the boo$s include the real #riter 5ichael ,amburger Cin %ings of &aturnD and the narrator2s partner *1lara+, #ho participates in small but notable #ays in <ertigo and The Emigrants %f 1lara corresponds in any #ay to Sebald2s real #ife Ute K #hich is not $no#n, but possible, given ho# others are used K #hy does she ta$e on a different name #hile ,amburger retains his o#n) %ndeed, naming varies throughout Sebald2s oeuvre *Paul 6ereyter+ is the real name of Sebald2s teacher from Sonthofen, but *5ax /erber+ and *-usterlit4+ are invented names signifying composites of people $no#n to the author and public figures alive and dead C*/erber+, or *-uerbach+ in the 3erman original, comprises the painter /ran$ -uerbach and Sebald2s =?H0s 5anchester landlord *-usterlit4+ combines an anonymous architectural historian friend of the author and the =indertrans ort survivor Susi 6echh[fer D %nconsistency and ambiguity are once again the hallmar$ of Sebald2s use of names and people 5y final example of the shifting relationship bet#een author and narrator relates to the opening of %ings of &aturn; %n -ugust =??2, #hen the dog days #ere dra#ing to an end, % set off to #al$ the county of Suffol$, in the hope of dispelling the emptiness that ta$es hold of me #henever % have completed a long stint of #or$ -nd in fact my hope #as reali4ed, up to a pointA for % have seldom felt so carefree as % did then, #al$ing for hours in the day through the thinly populated countryside F G % #onder no#, ho#ever, #hether there might be something in the old superstition that certain ailments of the spirit and of the body are particularly li$ely to beset us under the sign of the Dog Star -t all events, in retrospect % became preoccupied not only #ith the unaccustomed sense of freedom but also #ith the paralysing horror that had come over me at various times #hen confronted #ith the traces of destruction, reaching far bac$ into the past, that #ere evident even in that remote place Perhaps it #as because of this that, a year to the day after % began my tour, % #as ta$en into hospital in Bor#ich in a state of almost total immobility C9D *Dispelling the emptiness+, *ailments of the spirit+, *paralysing horror+, *state of almost total immobility+; the cumulative effect of these phrases is surely to encourage

=29 the idea that the narrator2s internment in hospital, revealed on the next page, is the result of psychological or emotional disturbance !his is compounded by the next section, #hich describes the narrator2s increasingly tenuous hold on reality %ndeed, as 5aya 7aggi relates, *one revie#er assumed he had been incarcerated in a mental asylum+ CHD Eet as Sebald explained; *'al$ing along the seashore Fof East -ngliaG #as not comfortable K one foot #as al#ays lo#er than the other % had a pain, and the follo#ing summer, % stretched, and something bro$e in my bac$ + !hreatened #ith paralysis, he had a four.hour operation for a shattered disc C7aggi HD !hus Sebald has ta$en a prosaic incident from his o#n life and subtly transformed it for his *%+.narrator into some more nebulous, suggestive, and literary !he exact relationship bet#een author and narrator is never set fast, but hovers in a state of ambiguous uncertainty ,o# then might #e begin to define this ambiguous narrator) !he vocabulary of narrative theory might add clarity %n 3enette2s terms, he is clearly a homodiegetic Cpresent #ithin the storyD narrator 6ut is he the hero of his tale CautodiegeticD, or the observer.#itness) !he latter seems most plausible, yet he is more than merely a *bystander+ C3enette 2:<D, given his level of personal involvement and complicity !hese categories begin to seem insufficient Perhaps #e might consider Sebald2s *%+. figure as a personification of the *implied author+, the category 'ayne 6ooth suggested #as a$in to *the author2s Jsecond self2+ C>=D 6ut as 8immon.Senan points out in her analysis of these terms, the implied author is, in contradistinction to the narrator, a voiceless entity created by the reader2s interaction #ith the text, #ho, therefore, *cannot literally be a participant in the narrative communication situation+ C88D %t seems that ne# categories might have to be invented Bicola Sing calls the Sebaldian narrator a *neutral mouthpiece, not intruding #ith his o#n response or experience+ C*Structures+ 2>:D !his idea might encourage a simplistic psychoanalytic reading in #hich the narrator is held to act as a *therapist+ distanced from his *patients+ CcharactersD by a posture of professional neutrality -nother analogy suggested by the idea of neutrality is that the narrator is a$in to a $ind of (ournalist or archivist #hose #or$ involves collecting the testimony of others 6oth 5ar$ -nderson and 0ilian /urst argue that Sebald2s texts, in particular The Emigrants and Austerlitz, depend on *reported speech+

=2: C-nderson =0H, /urst 8>D /or -nderson, the narrator presents others2 lives *not as they Jreally happened2 but as they #ere Jreally reported2 to him+ C=0>D !he "uestion remains, ho#ever, ho# far this supposedly neutral and ob(ective listener intervenes and manipulates the material *reported+ to him Ln the one hand, it is notable ho# during long periods of narration by other characters, the narrator seems to melt a#ay /or -na. %sabel -liaga.6uchenau; *!he narrator disappears as mediator bet#een the character and reader+ C=:?D Eet the repeated grammatical reminders C*said -usterlit4+, *said /erber+D, mitigate against this absenceA as /urst points out, Sebald2s discourse is in fact *cited speech, #hich never allo#s us to forget the mediating presence of the narrator+ C8>D !his apparent contradiction bet#een presence and absence is at the heart of Sebald2s pro(ect -s the analysis belo# #ill sho#, it corresponds to the simultaneous movements of proximity and distance found in both the content and structure of his prose narratives !he ambiguous stance ta$en by the Sebaldian narrator is not #ithout its socio.political implications -s Philip Schlesinger has noted, the apparent posture of bearing #itness adopted in Austerlitz should not be ta$en at face value, $no#ing #hat #e do of Sebald2s biography Schlesinger reminds us that *behind the narrator is a 3erman #riter.in.exile #ho chooses to bear #itness to 7e#ish suffering+ C<0D 'hile Sebald is not "uite an exile K more an emigrant, as #e #ill see K and bears #itness to non.7e#ish suffering too, his nationality is undeniably important %ndeed, ,elmut Schmit4 even sees the narrator as a member of the *perpetrator collective+ C9=0D Eet such analyses conflate the author #ith the narrator, #hich, though understandable given the close relation bet#een the t#o, is nevertheless to ma$e a crucial misunderstanding % #ould li$e to suggest that the #ay to avoid this problem is to consider Sebald2s *%+.narrator neither as the mouthpiece of the author, nor as a reporter, therapist, observer or #itness, but instead in terms of a ersona Lriginally the mas$ #orn by actors in 1lassical 3reece, ersona has come to mean a part that is played, #hether in #riting or ordinary life %ts designation of *an assumed character or role, esp one adopted by an author in his or her #riting+ C7E.D dates bac$ to the =>92 preface to Paradise Lost, and has since gained #ide currency in both poetry and prose !he second, related definition, *the aspect of a person2s character that is displayed to or perceived by others+ C7E.D, only emerged in the t#entieth century, and it #as this connotation that 7ung adopted as a contrast to the inner being or anima !his idea of the aspect of oneself that one chooses to sho#, #hile

=2< $eeping other characteristics hidden, may be useful in Sebald2s case 8ather than *appearing+ in his boo$s as himself, he is perhaps appearing as someone else #ith the same name C-lthough he is never named in the texts, the reproduction of the narrator2s passport on page ==: of <ertigo clearly sho#s the name *' Sebald+ D 5any other #riters have appeared in their o#n fictions 7ohn /o#les, for example, describes his unli$ely appearance on a @ictorian train, sitting opposite his character 1harles Smithson to#ards the end of The French Lieutenant6s )oman C=?H?D, in order to dramati4e the author2s indecision as to #hether 1harles deserves a happy ending -nother instance #ould be the #ay *5artin -mis+ intervenes in !oney C=?8:D, #riting a screenplay for and playing chess #ith his protagonist Cin a posture 8ichard !odd terms the *intrusive author+D 6ut these are clearly playing a different role to the Sebaldian narrator, not least in the fact that they are essentially #al$.on parts -nother possible comparison is #ith travel #riters %ndeed, 6ianca !heisen, in an article from 200:, argues that Sebald2s #or$ should be considered primarily in terms of this genre 1ertainly, a comparison #ith certain types of travel #riting might be productive /or example, the narrators of such #or$s as 3eorge Lr#ell2s .o#n and 7ut in Paris and London C=?99D and 6ruce 1hat#in2s The &onglines C=?8>D are, arguably, semi. fictionali4ed versions of their authors, personae #hose actions cannot be said al#ays to correspond #ith the real.life experiences on #hich the narratives are based Eet to invo$e 3enette2s categories once again, these examples correspond to the *ideological+ or didactic function, in their emphasis on raising a#areness, here of Parisian $itchens and -ustralian outbac$ culture Sebald2s narrative persona is closer to 3enette2s *testimonial+ function, #hich *may ta$e the form simply of an attestation, as #hen a narrator indicates the source of his information, or the degree of precision of his o#n memories, or the feelings #hich one or another episode a#a$ens in him+ C3enette 2<HD !he Sebaldian persona does all of these things #hile notably avoiding didacticism 3enette2s definition also distances Sebald from the *Philip 8oth+ #ho appears in such fictions as 7 eration &hyloc- C=??9D and The Plot Against America C200:D, or the *6ret Easton Ellis+ #ho appears in Lunar Par- C200<D 1ertainly, 8oth2s and Ellis2s alter. egos are, li$e Sebald2s, composed of an ambiguous mixture of fiction and true biography Eet in these #or$s the focus is on the author2s psycho.dramas Cin 3enette2s terms, autodiegeticD, #hereas in Sebald #e find a much greater interest in the stories of others

=2H

Bone of these points of comparison, then, seems ade"uate %ndeed, the impetus for the Sebaldian persona comes partly from the author2s disdain for other forms of narrative ,e told one intervie#er; *!here2s still fiction #ith an anonymous narrator #ho $no#s everything, #hich seems to me preposterous+ C7aggi HD %nstead, Sebald, an expert on -ustrian literature, created a structure influenced by the #or$ of !homas 6ernhard /or Sebald, 6ernhard *only tells you in his boo$s #hat he has heard from others So he invented, as it #ere, a $ind of periscopic form of narrative Eou2re al#ays sure that #hat he tells you is related, at one remove, at t#o removes, at t#o or three+ CSilberblatt 89D !hus, Sebald says, *% content myself #ith the role of the messenger+ C7aggi HD ,o#ever, this is some#hat disingenuous -s sho#n in the analysis above, Sebald2s narrator comes #ith an Cadmittedly shado#yD personality and biography of his o#n, #hich the reader cannot help but relate to the author to a varying extent dependent on his or her $no#ledge of Sebald2s o#n history %ndeed, 7aggi, "uoting a friend of Sebald, suggests that this reveals an element of playfulness on the part of the author; *,e Fthe narratorG has obvious affinities #ith 5ax, but it2s playing on our naivety, because the reader is al#ays tempted to identify the narrator #ith the #riter ,e2s taunting us+ C7aggi HD Sebald himself has stated that his use of an ambiguous narrator, along #ith his mixture of fact and fiction and insertion of photographs of variable "uality and doubtful provenance, are all intended precisely to create uncertainty in the reader; %t2s the opposite of suspending disbelief and being s#ept along by the action, #hich is perhaps not the highest form of mental activityA it2s to constantly as$, J'hat happened to these people, #hat might they have felt li$e)2 Eou can generate a similar state of mind in the reader by ma$ing them uncertain C7aggi HD !his uncertainty or unsettlement means that the reader can never adopt a stance either of identification #ith the narrator and his sub(ects nor of ob(ective, privileged insight into their lives %nstead, as Deane 6lac$ler observes, the method serves to encourage a *disobedient+ and *adventurous+ reader /or 6lac$ler, Sebald2s narrators *foreground the reader2s dialogical self F G 6ecause the narrator2s first.person voice is a self.

=2> constructed fiction, the reader is free to play in the textual spaces he *creates+, free to disobey the seeming authority of a voice #riting artifice+ C=00D 5y contention is that beyond these elements of on the one hand *taunting+ the reader, and on the other encouraging his or her participation Cdisobedient or other#iseD, the result of Sebald2s narrative techni"ue is #hat % call an *empathic narrative persona+ Em athy in 0a1aprian terms is a simultaneous combination of proximity and distance, an ac$no#ledgement of one2s feelings for the suffering other #hile retaining a#areness of the other2s alterity, a mixture of identification and understanding in the same gesture Sebald2s testimonial posture of messenger privileges an empathic relation to his sub(ects, in that it includes, #hilst simultaneously disavo#ing, the *feelings #hich one or another episode a#a$ens in him+ C3enette 2<HD 6ut beyond this, the use of the persona also enables empathy at the structural level !he narrative itself may be seen as empathic in that by inserting a persona bet#een the author and the sub(ect Sebald achieves a critical level of distance #hile nevertheless engaging *in person+ #ith his characters !he examples belo# #ill illustrate this dual empathy #hich occurs at the level of both content and form *Paul 6ereyter+, the second of four narratives that ma$e up The Emigrants, tells the story of the narrator2s erst#hile schoolteacher in post.#ar 3ermany Unli$e the others in this volume, this biographical s$etch and its photographs are, according to the author, *completely authentic+ C6igsby, *%n 1onversation+ =<<D, #ith the exception of certain minor elements of colour imported from 'ittgenstein2s biography !hus both historical truth and personal memory are at sta$e !he story opens #ith the narrator learning of Paul2s suicide on a train.trac$ in =?8:, through an article in the local paper #hich fails to account for the contradictions of the teacher2s life !he narrator decides to embar$ on *investigations+ C28D of his o#n %nitially, #e learn, fond memories of Paul and thoughts of his sad end led him to#ards a series of introspective con(ectures; -nd so, belatedly, % tried to get closer to him, to imagine #hat his life #as li$e F G % imagined him lying in the open air on his balcony #here he #ould often sleep in the summer, his face canopied by the hosts of the stars % imagined him s$ating in #inter, alone on the fish ponds at 5oosbachA and % imagined him stretched out on the trac$ C2?D

=28 !he narrator goes on to relate ho# he *pictured+ Paul lying do#n on the trac$ to a#ait the approaching train, before concluding; Such endeavours to imagine his life and death did not, as % had to admit, bring me any closer to Paul, except at best for brief emotional moments of the $ind that seemed presumptuous to me %t is in order to avoid this sort of #rongful trespass that % have #ritten do#n #hat % $no# of Paul 6ereyter C2?D Since the rest of the story is an apparently dispassionate account of Paul2s life, dra#ing on the recollections of those #ho $ne# him and on documentary evidence, it is tempting to ta$e the narrator at his #ord and assume that *imagining+ has been re(ected in favour of a respectful, distanced ob(ectivity %ndeed, the critic 7 7 0ong appears to accept this in his initial remar$s on this passage 0ong interprets the narrator2s early attempts to *imagine+ and *picture+ as a reflection *on the epistemological and ethical inade"uacy of empathy+, and says of the *#rongful trespass+ comment above that *FeGmpathy is thus re(ected as a form of unacceptable transgression+ C*%ntercultural %dentities+ <2:D % #ill return to 0ong2s arguments later, but for no# these Cde. contextuali4edD comments are useful in understanding ho# Sebald2s narrative is, on the contrary, *empathic+ in the particular sense used in this study 0ong2s analysis appears to presume t#o things; firstly, that imagining and empathy are identicalA secondly, that the rest of the *Paul 6ereyter+ section contains no further element of either 6oth these apparent presumptions are soon problemati4ed #ith detailed analysis, #hich #ill sho# that Sebald2s gesture in this passage is in fact precisely one of empathy in the 0a1aprian sense of simultaneous proximity and distance % #ill begin #ith a closer loo$ at the Sebaldian narrator2s statement that he #ishes to avoid *#rongful trespass+ Despite this passage2s apparent aim of distancing the sub(ect from the narrator, it nevertheless contains #ithin it the seeds of personal involvement and proximity 6y the narrator2s o#n admission, his attempts at *imagining+ are re(ected, in part, because they did not *bring FhimG any closer to Paul+, suggesting that this is still his #ish, should there be a #ay to do so that avoids *#rongful trespass+ %ndeed, no other motive for #riting the story is given !here is also an intriguing ambiguity contained #ithin the apparently ingenuous statement that the narrator has *#ritten do#n #hat FheG $no#FsG of Paul 6ereyter+ -s 5ar$ 5c1ulloh has pointed out, an ad(acent phrase from the original 3erman text, *im

=2? @erlauf meiner Er$undungen+, #hich 5c1ulloh translates as *in the course of my en"uiries+, has been left out of the English translation of this passage 5c1ulloh argues that this has the effect of *de.emphasi4ing the narrator2s active role in the construction or reconstruction of Paul 6ereyter2s last years+ 5c1ulloh continues; *!he brevity of the English discards or at least sublimates the notion of search and discovery from the narrator2s attitude to#ards his account+ C*%ntroduction+ =HD !hese ideas of search and discovery implied by *en"uiries+ suggest a much more active personal involvement on the narrator2s part than *#ritten do#n #hat % $no#+ ,o#ever, Sebald2s choice of #ord, *Er$undungen+ has a meaning closer to *reconnaissance+ than to *en"uiries+ Cusually *Er$undigungen+D 8econnaissance, #ith its implications of militarism or scientific non.engagement, #ould seem to distance the narrator from his sub(ect rather than bring him closer Eet this choice of #ord #or$s as a counter#eight to #hat 5ichael ,ulse2s translation renders as merely *brief emotional moments+ but #hich the original 3erman K *-usuferungen des 3efPhls+ C:<D K implies are excessive and over#helming C-usufern K *to burst or brea$ its ban$s+ F1ollins DictionaryGD -s Sebald2s 3erman original expresses the #hole passage in one sentence C#here ,ulse uses t#oD, the use of the term *Er$undigungen+ may be seen as a stylistic repression of the overflo#ing emotionality of *-usuferungen+ in a perfectly balanced linguistic gesture of 0a1aprian empathy !his blend of personal connection and consciously imposed distance may also be found in the #ider tra(ectory of the narrative !he first movement the narrator ma$es is to#ards proximity %mmediately after the passage above, he introduces his o#n story and sho#s ho# it intersects #ith Paul2s; *%n December =?<2 my family moved from the village of ' to the small to#n of S , =? $ilometres a#ay+ C2?D *S + turns out to be #here Paul lives and teaches, and the narrator gives a vivid account of #hat it #as li$e to be in that gifted educator2s class ,e also subtly portrays the emotional feelings that arise #hen remembering those childhood days Describing Paul2s habit of expertly #histling #hile leading the schoolchildren on mountain #al$s, the narrator comments that these once mysterious melodies *infallibly gave a #rench to my heart #henever, years later, % rediscovered them in a 6ellini opera or 6rahms sonata+ C:=D Even more revealingly, the narrator implicitly claims affinity #ith Paul through common *exile+ or *emigrant+ status Paul #as exiled to /rance before the #ar on account of his three. "uarter -ryan status, and then endured a $ind of internal exile fighting in the 3erman

=90 army before returning to S after the #ar to live once again among those #ho had previously shunned him !he result of these vicissitudes is seen in Paul2s (ournals that he #rote in later life 0ucy 0andau, Paul2s bereaved partner, passes on this diary, in #hich Paul had transcribed accounts of suicide by other #riters, prefiguring his o#n eventual death 0ucy comments that *it seemed to me F G as if Paul had been gathering evidence, the mounting #eight of #hich, as his investigations proceeded, finally convinced him that he belonged to the exiles and not to the people of S + C<8.?D !here is a clear parallel here #ith the narrator2s pro(ect of *gathering evidence+ about Paul Cin the course of his en"uiries, investigations, or reconnaissanceD, a parallel that implies that he, too, feels that he *belongFsG to the exiles+ %ndeed, the reader already $no#s from the previous section of The Emigrants, *,enry Sel#yn+, that the narrator has lived at least some of his life in England, far from his 6avarian origins 5oreover, the later sections, *-mbros -del#arth+ and *5ax /erber+, further strengthen the narrator2s identification #ith the exiles #hose stories he recovers and recounts, not least through his strong criticism of 3ermany2s attitude to#ards its past that parallels the disgust Paul feels for the bystanders of his home community %n this context, the Sebaldian narrator2s comment that his short =?.$ilometre (ourney from ' to S as a young boy *seemed li$e a voyage half#ay round the #orld+ C2?.90D is representative not (ust of limited childish perception and emotional upheaval, but of a sensibility #hich sees exile and emigration as central to the melancholic existence of both himself and the group represented by Sel#yn, 6ereyter, -del#arth and /erber %n this #ay the narrator appears to identify himself #ith his sub(ects to the extent that he becomes the fifth emigrant Ca point also made by Susanne /in$e in her article *' 3 Sebald K Der /Pnfte -usge#anderte+D !his strong personal connection, suggested by fond memories and shared emigrant status, may suggest an unproblemati4ed identification bet#een the narrator and Paul that contradicts his avo#ed determination to avoid *#rongful trespass+ ,o#ever, other elements of the story sho# that the relationship bet#een narrator and sub(ect is characteri4ed primarily by several layers of distance, at both the textual and meta. textual level Exemplary of this techni"ue is the #ay Paul2s childhood memories are rendered through several filters of memory Paul2s father, *a man of refinement and inclined to melancholy+ C<0D, ran an *emporium+ in the to#n of S selling everything *from coffee to collar studs, camisoles to cuc$oo cloc$s, candied sugar to collapsible

=9= top hats+ C<=D Paul remembers ho# he travelled by tricycle around the shop in constant #onderment, passing *through the ravines bet#een tables, boxes and counters, amidst a variety of smells+ C<=D Sebald relates these events through several layers of narration Paul remembers his childhood during convalescence from an eye operation, and describes it to 0ucyA 0ucy remembers this conversation decades later, and tells it to the narratorA the narrator, finally, relates 0ucy2s account to us ,ere multiple seams of narration and time are interposed bet#een the narrator and the sub(ect CPaul2s childhoodD, perhaps a common enough narrative techni"ue 6ut this layering is characteristic of the #hole structure of Sebald2s art %f the sub(ect of this story is seen not (ust as an individual, *Paul 6ereyter+, but also as the mid.t#entieth century Europe 6ereyter2s story inhabits, #e can begin to model the relationship bet#een Sebald and the victims of turbulent history Sebald, through an act of #riting, creates a narrative persona #ho, through acts of listening and of imagination, relates to, and relates the story of, *Paul 6ereyter+ !hus the story is told at one remove Paul, mean#hile, though clearly sho#n as suffering at the hands of anti.7e#ish la#s, #hich prevent his marriage to the non.-ryan ,elen ,ollaender and force his exile to /rance, is nevertheless a some#hat indirect victim compared to those #ho #ere imprisoned and murdered in concentration camps during the same period 6y choosing to avoid direct confrontation #ith the more obvious horrors of the ,olocaust, Sebald adds another layer of distance /inally, the distance in time bet#een the narrator and his #ider sub(ect is foregrounded in the text through the themati4ation of memory throughout Distance, then, is embedded in the very structure of *Paul 6ereyter+, as in much of Sebald2s oeuvre, in #hich sub(ects are separated from the author by several narrative layers !his serves as an exact counterbalance to the apparent identification implied by his statements of close personal connection Sebald2s techni"ue, based around a particular use of a narrative persona, thus combines simultaneously the elements of proximity and distance necessary for an empathic approach to the victims of history - further aspect of this empathic persona is the #ay he listens to the individuals #hose lives he narrates %n *Paul 6ereyter+, the only person #ith #hom the narrator has a direct conversation is 0ucy 0andau !heir exchanges, ho#ever, are not represented as conventional "uestion.and.ans#er dialogue;

=92 She lived at Everdon, and it #as there, on a summer2s day in the second year after Paul died, a day % recall as curiously soundless, that % paid her the first of several visits She began by telling me that at the age of seven, together #ith her father, #ho #as an art historian and a #ido#er, she had left her home to#n of /ran$furt C:2D 0ucy, then, appears spontaneously to recount her story for the narratorA any "uestions he may have as$ed are removed from the text 5oreover, the narrator implies that he holds bac$ from as$ing "uestions at all #here possible -fter 0ucy recounts her early years, and notes that Paul #as the only person she ever met to compare #ith her childhood friend Ernest, there is a paragraph brea$ !hen; *- lengthy silence follo#ed this disclosure before 5me 0andau added that she had been reading Babo$ov2s autobiography on a par$ bench+ C:9D During this *lengthy silence+ there is no #ord of sympathy or follo#.up "uestion -s Sebald told an intervie#er; *% try to let people tal$ for themselves+ C7aggi HD !his resistance to the temptation to prompt may be compared #ith 0a#rence 0anger2s exhortation that listeners to traumatic narratives must avoid as$ing leading "uestions #hich merely reflect the interlocutor2s desire for uplift and redemption and deny the truth of the spea$er2s experience %n Holocaust Testimonies: The %uins of !emory C=??=D, a meditation on the lessons to be learned from #atching video intervie#s #ith survivors, 0anger notes that the "uestionersIlisteners #ho are apparently facilitating the testimony often fail to really *hear+ the real story being told !hey tend instead to urge the former victim to ac$no#ledge that they have someho# #on through, that their spirit has survived, and that their experience #as not, after all, in vain; !hrough the content of their "uestions, intervie#ers invite #itnesses to give detailed accounts of their feelings of (oy #hen they reali4ed that their ordeal #as over 'e need to understand more about ho# this psychology of expectation can impose itself on the reality of the situation and gradually forge a myth that #ould displace the truth C=<>D !his truth, for 0anger, is one of an irrevocably *diminished self+ #hose experience is not a teleological movement from suffering to liberation to recovery but a *parallel+ ontology in #hich the past life of the camps is ever.present /or 0anger, *the cherished voices of continuity, adaptation, and rene#al spea$ #ith the authority of their absence, immersing us in a #orld #hose inhabitants remain adrift even as they clamber ashore+

=99 C9>D *!he challenge is to enter this #orld to reverse the process of defamiliari4ation that over#helmed the victims and to find an orientation that #ill do (ustice to their recaptured experience #ithout summoning it or them to (udgment and evaluation+ C=89D 'e need to *enter the realm of unreconciled understanding, #here events remain permanently unredeemed and unredeemable+ C200D -n intervie#er2s "uestioning of a ,olocaust survivor and a friend2s gentle approach to a bereaved #oman may seem at first sight to have little in common 6ut there is in Sebald2s approach to his sub(ects a certain affinity #ith 0anger2s position Paul 6ereyter commits suicide decades after the #orst events of his life, suggesting that he #as never able to move on from them Cand calling to mind other belated suicides li$e 7ean -mQry, Paul 1elan, and Primo 0eviD Sebald, li$e 0anger, implies that healing and redemption are not relevant concepts for those #ho lived through 'orld 'ar %% in Europe Paul inhabits the same realm as 0anger2s *former victims+ in that he carries his experience #ith him as ever.present Cas a *parallel+ selfD, and he gleans nothing positive, heroic or redemptive from his survival, instead succumbing to bouts of depression that culminate in blea$ suicide on a rail#ay trac$ %ndeed, Paul may be described as a 0angerian *diminished self+ 8emembering the odd #ay Paul tal$ed in the classroom, the narrator describes his former teacher as follo#s; %n #ell.structured sentences, he spo$e #ithout any touch of dialect but #ith a slight impediment of speech or timbre, as if the sound #ere coming not from the larynx but from some#here near the heart !his sometimes gave one the feeling that it #as all being po#ered by cloc$#or$ inside him and Paul in his entirety #as a mechanical human made of tin and other metal parts, and might be put out of operation for ever by the smallest functional hitch C9:.<D Paul, then, is permanently damaged by his experience Sebald2s narrator2s avoidance of leading "uestions #hen tal$ing to Paul2s bereaved partner is (ust one element of an exemplary absence of, in 0anger2s terms, inappropriate *(udgement+ or *evaluation+ !he *investigations+ instigated by the narrator do not produce any results or conclusions as such -t the end of the story an opportunity to comment on Paul2s decision to commit suicide is evaded !he narrative ends #ith 0ucy2s dispassionate account, #ith no further intervention from the narrator ,is determination to avoid *#rongful trespass+ is successfully achieved by allo#ing Paul2s and 0ucy2s stories to spea$ for themselves, despite having $no#n Paul personally, #hich could have led to speculation

=9: or even conclusions as to Paul2s inner thoughts /or Sebald, these are forever un$no#n to us -s 0ucy 0andau tells the narrator, *in the end it is hard to $no# #hat it is that someone dies of Ees, it is very hard, said 5me 0andau, one really doesn2t $no#+ CH=. 2D %t therefore seems strange that the critic 5arianna !orgovnic$ should detect in Sebald2s #or$ *a pervasive identification #ith the dead+ C=2HD, calling him *the master of lability, of intimate identification #ith the fate of others+ C=2?D !hough it is tempting to re(ect this claim in the light of the analysis above, #hich sho#s that Sebald2s method consists not of simple identification but an empathic approach that includes it, !orgovnic$2s phrase may be useful if the notion of *lability+ is separated from *intimate identification+ 'hile Sebald is not merely identifying #ith the dead, there are nevertheless moments of slippage that deserve attention !he extent to #hich the other can ever really be understood is problemati4ed by *labile+ sections #hich occur precisely #here comprehension brea$s do#n %n the middle of *Paul 6ereyter+, the narrator briefly discusses Paul2s time spent serving in the 3erman army, #hich is the period he #as *least able to understand in Paul2s story+ C<<D 0isting Paul2s various stations in Europe, the narrator evasively comments that *doubtless FheG sa# more than any heart or eye can bear+ C<HD !hus far the possibility of understanding is #holly re(ected by maintaining strict distance ,o#ever, the conclusion of this passage represents a brief fracture, a moment of lability in #hich the narrator2s voice mingles #ith that of Paul - photograph of 6ereyter in sunglasses appears alongside the follo#ing text; F G al#ays, as Paul #rote under this photograph, one #as, as the cro# flies, about 2,000 $m a#ay K but from #here) K and day by day, hour by hour, #ith every beat of the pulse, one lost more and more of one2s "ualities, became less comprehensible to oneself, increasingly abstract C<HD ,ere the voice of the narrator is conflated #ith that of Paul 'or$ing against the determining phrase *as Paul #rote+ are the lac$ of speech mar$s, the use of the formal pronoun *one+ C#hich seems to universali4e the experienceD, and the sudden emotional impact of *but from #here)+ Chere a voice brea$s in; the narrator2s) Paul2s)D !he moment of slippage, though brief, is enough to destabili4e the surrounding narration

=9< #hich consists of the narrator2s report of his conversation #ith 0ucy 0andau 6oth Paul and the narrator, it seems, have become *less comprehensible to FthemselvesG+ subtle moments of lability in the context of other#ise stable ob(ectivity do not contradict but rather reinforce the process of empathy that operates in the area bet#een distance and proximity, understanding and identification %dentity slippage is a recurring theme in Sebald2s narratives, happening in relation to the living as #ell as the dead %n %ings of &aturn, the narrator recounts a *strange feeling+ C=89D, a combination of identification and dQ(] vu, experienced during a visit to his friend 5ichael ,amburger ,amburger, li$e Sebald2s narrator, #as a 3erman QmigrQ #riter living in East -nglia, though he moved to England much earlier, in =?99, at the age of nine Lnce again, Sebald2s narrator is perhaps *gathering evidence+ about the *exiles+ #ith #hom he feels an affinity ,amburger2s shado#y memories of childhood in 6erlin are recounted by the narrator in paraphrase from ,amburger2s published memoirs !hen #e learn of ,amburger2s current thoughts about the meaning of his life, recounted to the narrator in the garden, in #hich ,amburger ponders his lin$s to one of the 3erman #riters he has translated, the lyric poet /riedrich ,[lderlin C=>>0.=8:9D !heir birthdates, for example, are (ust t#o days apart, and the #ater pump in ,amburger2s garden has the same year #ritten on it as that of ,[lderlin2s birth !hese lin$s amount not (ust to coincidences but also ,amburger2s sense that his personality has ta$en on aspects of the earlier #riter ,amburger #onders; *-cross #hat distances in time do the elective affinities and correspondences connect) ,o# is it that one perceives oneself in another human being, or, if not oneself, one2s precursor)+ C=82D ,amburger2s existential conundrum is itself a precursor of the narrator2s odd experience that follo#s, and indeed it is not clear Cpartly due to Sebald2s avoidance of speech mar$sD #hether ,amburger, the narrator, or both, are articulating these "uestions !he narrator says that #hy it #as that on my first visit to 5ichael2s house % instantly felt as if % lived or had once lived there, in every respect precisely as he does, % cannot explain -ll % $no# is that % stood spellbound in his high.ceilinged studio room #ith its north.facing #indo#s in front of the heavy mahogany bureau at #hich 5ichael said he no longer #or$ed because the room #as so cold, even in midsummerA and that, #hile #e tal$ed of the difficulty of heating old houses, a strange feeling came upon me, as if it #ere not he #ho had abandoned that place of #or$ but %, as if the spectacles cases, letters and #riting materials that had Such

=9H evidently lain untouched for months in the soft north light had once been my spectacles cases, my letters and my #riting materials C=89D 1ontinuing through the house, noting his feelings affinity of #ith other ob(ects scattered around, the narrator has the same feeling of being one2s o#n precursor that ,amburger had reported; *the "uite outlandish thought crossed my mind that these things, the $indling, the (iffy bags, the fruit preserves, the seashells and the sound of the sea #ithin them had all outlasted me, and that 5ichael #as ta$ing me round a house in #hich % myself had lived a long time ago+ C=8:.<D !here are different #ays in #hich to interpret this ambiguous experience %t could be described as normal dQ(] vu enriched by a sense of connection to others that collapses time %t could also be seen as a #ay of identifying #ith one2s antecedents or even a $ind of reincarnation, thereby claiming a connection to the past 5ore problematically, ,amburger could be seen to over.identify #ith ,[lderlin, and the narrator #ith ,amburger, in gestures of appropriation of the other2s life and memory ,o#ever, despite this suggestion, this episode does not undermine Sebald2s ethics of representation, nor does it disrupt the empathic balance bet#een *en"uiries+ and *brief emotional moments+ held so carefully in *Paul 6ereyter+ ,amburger is still living, is $no#n #ell to the narrator, and did not suffer directly under the Ba4i regime, all things #hich separate him from 6ereyter Sebald suggests that moments of identification #ith those such as ,amburger are not sub(ect to the same intense scruples as #ith victims of the ,olocaust !his distinction is made clearer in Sebald2s final prose narrative, Austerlitz -n early episode from this boo$ reinforces the carefully delineated ethical stance #hich re(ects the possibility of imagining others2 suffering !he narrator describes his visit, in =?H>, to the historic fortress of 6reendon$ in 6elgium, #hich #as used by the 3erman occupying forces during 'orld 'ar %% as an internment camp %nitially it appears to him as *a lo#.built concrete mass, rounded at all its outer edges and giving the gruesome impression of something hunched and misshapen+ C2<D 'al$ing through the grounds, he passes through an area #here, he tells us, prisoners #ere forced to move over#helmingly large "uantities of earth using crude #heelbarro#s 'hile he initially

=9> seems to be feeling sympathy for their plight, close analysis of his response reveals something more complicated; % could not imagine ho# the prisoners, very fe# of #hom had probably ever done hard physical labour before their arrest and internment, could have pushed these barro#s full of heavy detritus over the sun.ba$ed clay of the ground, furro#ed by ruts as hard as stone, or through the mire that #as churned up after a single day2s rainA it #as impossible to picture them bracing themselves against the #eight until their hearts nearly burst, or thin$ of the overseer beating them about the head #ith the handle of a shovel #hen they could not move for#ard C28.?D -n odd contradiction is in evidence here !he reader2s sympathy is apparently elicited; the ground is *hard as stone+A the prisoners2 *hearts nearly burst+ #ith effortA they are even *beatFenG about the head+ Eet simultaneously the narrator insists on his distance from the victims; he *could not imagine+ their labour, #hich is, moreover, *impossible to picture+ or even *thin$ of+ !hus #hile the scene is *pictured+ for the reader in prose, the narrator paradoxically asserts his determination not to imagine it and thereby ris$ identification #ith the prisoners !hus far, the process is similar to the narrator of *Paul 6ereyter+s re(ection of attempts to imagine the life and death of his former teacher 6ut this time the ethical point is extended to sho# that it is the fact that the victims are un$no#n and un$no#able that ma$es identification #ith them impermissible !he next section of the narrative ma$es this clear; ,o#ever, if % could not envisage the drudgery performed day after day, year after year, at 6reendon$ and all the other main and branch camps, #hen % finally entered the fort itself and glanced through the glass panes of a door on the right into the so.called mess of the SS guards #ith its scrubbed tables and benches, its bulging stove and the various adages neatly painted on its #all in 3othic lettering, I could #ell imagine the sight of the good fathers and dutiful sons from @ilsbiburg and /uhlsbPttel, from the 6lac$ /orest and the 6avarian -lps, sitting here #hen they came off duty to play cards or #rite letters to their loved ones at home -fter all, % had lived among them until my t#entieth year C2?, emphasis mineD %n ma$ing this distinction bet#een un$no#n victims, of #hom he has no direct experience, and the 3ermans running the camp, a cultural group he $no#s from childhood, the narrator sets out an ethics of representation in #hich #hat is beyond one2s o#n experience is not to be explicitly imagined 'hile the description of the #or$ing prisoners contains some emotive and descriptive material, it stops short of the

=98 common fictional trope of trying imaginatively to enter the mind of an individual victim, and, moreover, explicitly asserts that this strategy #ould be #rong %nstead Sebald2s narrator ta$es #hat may be called an allusive stance in this passage, #ith reference to the historian Saul /riedlMnder2s attempt to define #hat might constitute *ade"uacy+ in #riting about the ,olocaust -fter citing %da /in$2s short stories and 1laude 0an4mann2s &hoah as positive instances, /riedlMnder offers some suggestions; - common denominator appears; the exclusion of straight, documentary realism, but the use of some sort of allusive or distanced realism 8eality is there, in its star$ness, but perceived through a filter; that of memory Cdistance in timeD, that of spatial displacement, that of some sort of narrative margin #hich leaves the unsayable unsaid C*%ntroduction+ =>D Lne #ay that Sebald2s *allusive realism+ establishes a *narrative margin+ is through the description of ob(ects -s he #anders through the interior of 6reendon$, the narrator obli"uely addresses the issue of vanished, unrecorded memories; % thin$ of ho# little #e can hold in mind, ho# everything is constantly lapsing into oblivion #ith every extinguished life, ho# the #orld is, as it #ere, draining itself, in that the history of countless places and ob(ects #hich themselves have no po#er of memory is never heard, never described or passed on ,istories, for instance, li$e those of the stra# mattresses #hich lay, shado#.li$e, on the stac$ed plan$ beds and #hich had become thinner and shorter because the chaff in them disintegrated over the years, shrun$en K and no#, in #riting this, % do remember that such an idea occurred to me at the time K as if they #ere the mortal frames of those #ho once lay there in the dar$ness C9=D !he *filter+ of memory, to use /riedlMnder2s terms, here enables the act of *allusive realism+ 'here a reader might expect an emotional reaction to the evidence of human suffering and misery in this dungeon.li$e place, the narrator instead reaches for philosophical abstraction, pondering on the possibility of inanimate ob(ects o#ning *memory+, #hile only fleetingly mentioning the *mortal frames+ of the un$no#n victims Lnce again this strategy maintains a decorous distance that *leaves the unsayable unsaid+ by only alluding to the lost memories of victims rather than trying to imagine #hat these memories might have been

=9? !his allusive strategy may also be described as a repetitive process of approaching the sub(ect and turning a#ay Ln entering a casemate #ith an iron hoo$ hanging from the ceiling, suggestive of torture, the narrator reports feeling un#ell ,o#ever, he insists that this is not due to imagining #hat might have happened there; *%t #as not that as the nausea rose in me % guessed at the $ind of third.degree interrogations #hich #ere being conducted here around the time % #as born+ C99D %nstead the narrator turns a#ay from speculation in favour of #ritten accounts by actual survivors /irst he describes the torture suffered by 7ean -mQry at this same fortress -mQry described this in At the !ind6s Limits C=?HHD, and Sebald paraphrases his account, noting ho# he *#as hoisted aloft by his hands, tied behind his bac$, so that #ith a crac$ and splintering sound F his arms dislocated from the soc$ets in his shoulder (oints, and he #as left dangling+ C9:D 8ather than try to further describe -mQry2s suffering, the narrator turns a#ay again to describe the fate of another survivor ,ere Sebald2s habit of associative thought begins to ta$e on a threatening "uality, as every attempt to shy a#ay from horror simply leads bac$ to more !he narrator gives a dispassionate, factual account, abstracted from 1laude Simon2s Le *ardin des Plantes C=??>D, of ho# one 3ostone Bovelli immigrated to South -merica after suffering the same mode of torture as -mQry %n the ne# continent, Bovelli analysed the language of a primitive tribe, #hich consisted *almost entirely of vo#els, particularly the sound - in countless variations of tone and emphasis+ C9<D Ln returning home and becoming an artist, Bovelli used clusters of this letter - in his paintings, #hich to the narrator resemble *a long.dra#n. out scream+, illustrated in the text as follo#s; --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C9HD !hus Sebald finds a #ay of indirectly addressing the suffering of ,olocaust victims #ithout actually describing it !hrough an account of a visit to one of the more peripheral sites of ,olocaust history, Sebald sho#s his empathic narrative persona #restling #ith the impossibility of imagining others2 suffering and pondering the meaning of the traces that remain, #hether they be stra# mattresses or survivor accounts ,o#ever, no facile closure, conclusions, or (udgement are offeredA the G

=:0 6reendon$ episode ends abruptly #ith the dra#n.out scream, and the narrative moves directly on to the narrator2s second encounter #ith -usterlit4 !he relationship bet#een the Sebaldian persona and 7ac"ues -usterlit4, =indertrans ort survivor and architectural historian, offers further evidence of the empathic nature of this text 0a1apra describes empathy as *an affective relation, rapport, or bond #ith the other recogni4ed and respected as other+ C)riting 2=2.9D !he central relationship in -usterlit4 dramati4es this empathic bond in exemplary fashionA the narrator befriends and supports but maintains a respectful distance, never "uestioning, intruding or speculating %nstead, #hat the narrator does, over the decades of chance and arranged meetings #ith the troubled protagonist, is listen -t each encounter, the narrator briefly describes ho# he came to be #ith -usterlit4, before allo#ing the latter2s story to ta$e over, punctuated by the phrase *said -usterlit4+ only #here grammatically necessary -usterlit4, #ho #as removed from his motherland and mother tongue as an infant, #ho gre# up #ith disturbed foster.parents, and #ho only late in life is beginning to investigate his origins and the part played by Ba4ism in his family history, may be seen as a traumati4ed *survivor+ #ho bears #itness through testimony %n this light, the narrator could be construed as #hat Dori 0aub calls an *empathic listener+ CH8D %n his chapter *6earing 'itness, or the @icissitudes of 0istening+ C=??2D, 0aub presents himself as at once ,olocaust survivor, psychoanalyst speciali4ing in trauma, and co.founder of the /ortunoff @ideo -rchive for ,olocaust !estimonies at Eale, for #hich he also acts as an intervie#er 8egarding this latter role, he argues that not only is his presence essential for the enablement of testimony, but that it can also enact a measure of healing in the traumati4ed survivor !his is clear from his conflation of his t#o roles of psychoanalyst and listener Discussing the first, he says that *a therapeutic process K a process of constructing a narrative, of reconstructing a history and essentially or re@e,ternalizating the event K has to be set in motion+ CH?D 5oving on to the second, the testimonial process, he explicitly lin$s it #ith the therapeutic situation; *% find the process that is set in motion by psychoanalytic practice and by the testimony to be essentially the same, both in the narrator and in myself as listener Canalyst or intervie#erD+ C>0D !hus, by implication, *empathic listening+ to the testimony of ,olocaust survivors can *set in motion+ the same therapeutic process aspired to in relation to psychiatric patients 5oreover, in this model, healing is enabled in an extremely passive mannerA the listener merely has to listen, to be the site of *re.

=:= externali4ation+ to #hich the survivor can *articulate and transmit the story+ CH?D !he empathic listener is an *addressa+le other, an other #ho can hear the anguish of one2s memories and thus affirm and recogni4e their realness+ CH8, all emphases in originalD 0aub2s use of the pronoun *one+ is revealing here -s a survivor himself, it is perhaps he #ho is see$ing *healing+ through this process along #ith his patients Eet his intervie#ees do not necessarily #ant to be healed as such -s 0anger argues, the survivors intervie#ed for the /ortunoff -rchive are not e"uivalent to those see$ing psychiatric helpA they do not demand to be healed, simply heard 0aub2s use of *empathy+ here is non.0a1aprian as it fails to allo# the other to retain his or her othernessA transference and healing are intrinsic components of his schema -s such it differs from Sebald2s listening narrator in -usterlit4 #ho offers no explicit discourse of healing, merely recording the story of his protagonist -nd yet there are "uasi.therapeutic elements to Austerlitz at the level of narrative structure #hich may be revealed through further analysis of 0a1aprian empathy 0a1apra see$s to activate the term in order to achieve more useful or productive #ays of representing the traumatic past ,e argues that ,olocaust #riting, for example, can dra# on empathy to create *a discursive analogue of mourning as a mode of #or$ing through a relation to historical losses+ C)riting 2=9D 0a1apra labels this mode *empathic unsettlement+, in #hich the position of the #riter is self.reflexively utili4ed, explored and expressed Suggesting ho# this might be achieved, 0a1apra describes narrative in terms of movement; Empathic unsettlement also raises in pointed form the problem of ho# to address traumatic events involving victimi4ation, including the problem of composing narratives that neither confuse one2s o#n voice or position #ith the victim2s nor see$ facile uplift, harmoni4ation, or closure but allo# the unsettlement that they address to affect the narrative2s o#n movement in terms of both acting out and #or$ing through C)riting >8D 0a1apra is dra#ing on /reudian psychoanalytic terminology for his analogy %n *8emembering, 8epeating and 'or$ing !hrough+ C=?=:D, /reud describes a certain $ind of neurotic patient #ho *does not remember anything at all of #hat he has forgotten and repressed, but rather acts it out ,e reproduces it not as a memory, but as an actionA he repeats it, #ithout being a#are that he is repeating it+ C9HD !herapy enables the patient to *#or$ through+ the resistance that is causing this repetition, and

=:2 properly to remember and accept the Coften traumaticD past event -cting out is unconscious and involuntary, #hile #or$ing through is a process of deliberate remembrance Sebald2s narrator in Austerlitz moves from one state to the other !he boo$ opens as follo#s; *%n the second half of the =?H0s % travelled repeatedly from England to 6elgium, partly for study purposes, partly for other reasons #hich #ere never entirely clear to me+ C=D !his unconscious repetition *affectFsG the narrative2s o#n movement+ in that it leads to the narrator2s first meeting #ith -usterlit4 %ndeed, the narrator moves bet#een places and events #ith little apparent volition, as in the #anderings around Europe described in <ertigo ,o#ever, the end of Austerlitz sho#s the narrator *#or$ing through+ his *unsettlement+ by revisiting 6reendon$ thirty years after his first experience Bo *uplift, harmoni4ation, or closure+ is attempted here, though there is a small hint of historical progress; *!he fortifications lay unchanged on the blue.green island, but the number of visitors had increased+ C:==D -long #ith this evidence of #ider public interest in the past, the narrator summari4es Dan 7acobson2s family memoir, Heshel6s =ingdom C=??8D 6y reading this boo$ on the grassy ban$ near the fort the narrator is engaging in a deliberate, conscious, participatory act of remembrance !he details given from this boo$ also serve as a countermeasure to any *uplift+ created by the progress -usterlit4 ma$es to#ards tracing his father2s history and reconciling himself #ith his lost lover, 5arie de @erneuil 7acobson2s memoir reminds the reader of the factual losses of the ,olocaust, in this case those at Saunas in 0ithuania, #here *more than thirty thousand people #ere $illed+ CAusterlitz :=<D -cross the narrative time of Austerlitz, then, the Sebaldian persona has moved from acting.out to #or$ing.through, in a process analogous to 0a1apra2s *empathic unsettlement+ 5oreover, through the active visiting of memorial sites, #hich along #ith 6reendon$ include !ere4in and a 7e#ish cemetery, Sebald2s narrator also fulfils the re"uirements of #hat -ndreas ,uyssen has called *mimetic approximation+ Ln the "uestion of ho# present generations can mourn the ,olocaust in #hat he labels our *museal+ C==D culture, ,uyssen #rites; Bo matter ho# fractured by media, geography, or sub(ect position representations of the ,olocaust are, ultimately, it all comes bac$ to this core; unimaginable, unspea$able, and unrepresentable horror Post.,olocaust generations, it seems to me, can only approach that core by #hat % #ould call mimetic approximation, a mnemonic strategy #hich recogni4es the event in its

=:9 otherness and beyond identification or therapeutic empathy but #hich physically relieves some of the horror and the pain in the slo# and persistent labor of remembrance C*5onument+ =HD Sebald may be said to participate in this *physical+ remembrance in a virtual fashion through his empathic narrative persona, #ho persistently #anders the memorial sites of Europe #hile avoiding over.identification #ith victims 'hether this *relieves some of the horror and the pain+ is debatableA ,uyssen2s formula is motivated by his desire for positive patterns of mourning as an *antidote to the free4ing of memory+ C=<D, and it is not clear that Sebald #ould accede to this aim Bevertheless Sebald2s strategy is broadly similar to ,uyssen2s exhortation that #e should put the myriad representations of memory in contemporary culture to some use -nother suggestion as to ho# later generations should deal #ith the horrors of the past is provided by the philosopher 3illian 8ose 8ose critici4es the prevalence in both academic and popular culture of #hat she calls *,olocaust piety+ !his results from the belief that the ,olocaust is *ineffable+ and therefore inherently unrepresentable /or 8ose, this philosophical vie# #or$s *to mystify something #e dare not understand+ C:9, emphasis in originalD 8ose #ants to expose #hat she sees as the painful truth of humanity2s implicit collusion #ith evil, #hich can become concealed by simplistic divisions bet#een victims and perpetrators !his truth is to be reached through a ne# ethics of representation that combines *the fascism of representation+ #ith the *representation of /ascism+ 8ose analyses t#o films, &chindler6s List and The %emains of the .ay C#hile also ma$ing some reference to the boo$s on #hich they are basedD She argues that a *crisis of identity+ C:HD could and should have been produced in Spielberg2s film, by bringing out the implicit parallels bet#een the Ba4i commandant 3oeth and the 7e#s2 saviour Schindler %nstead the film fails, leaving us *at the +eginning of the day+ C:8, emphasis in originalD, in the safe position of the *ultimate predator+ C:>D #ho #atches sentimentally from a distance %t misses the opportunity of leaving us, instead, *unsafe, but #ith the remains of the day !o have that experience, #e #ould have to discover and confront our o#n fascism+ C:8, emphasis in originalD /or 8ose, this experience is achieved in The %emains of the .ay, #hich dramatises, through the character of the butler Stevens, *the contradiction of the ethic of service+ C<=D Stevens is motivated by a desire to serve a 0ord for #hom he has moral

=:: admiration, yet $no#s that once he has made his choice, he must sho# un"uestioning loyalty K and in this case, the 0ord is a $ey mobili4er of 6ritish inter.#ar appeasement of ,itler 8ose points out that Stevens2 situation is a$in to (oining a fascist *corporation+ such as 3erman Ba4ism, #hich in turn has parallels #ith the *great house+ of English aristocracy Ln (oining a fascist organisation, one ma$es an initial free choice of allegiance, but then loses freedom by renouncing the right to critici4e 8ose concludes; !his film dramatises the lin$ bet#een emotional and political collusion 'ithout sentimental voyeurism, it induces a crisis of identification in the vie#er, #ho is brought up flat against e"ually the re resentation of Fascism, the honoura+le tradition #hich could not recognise the evils of Ba4ism, and the corporate order of the great house, and the fascism of re resentation, a political culture #hich #e identify as our o#n, and hence an emotional economy #hich #e cannot pro(ect and diso#n C<9.:, emphasis in originalD 8ose, then, describes a *crisis of identification+, in #hich the vie#er is forced to identify #ith the butler2s dilemma of loyalty %n Austerlitz, a comparable moment is the identification a reader could ma$e #ith the protagonist2s profound ignorance of the ,olocaust -fter he belatedly recovers his memory, -usterlit4 explains ho# he had achieved this evasion; %nconceivable as it seems to me today, % $ne# nothing about the con"uest of Europe by the 3ermans and the slave state they set up, and nothing about the persecution % escaped, or at least, #hat % did $no# #as not much more than a salesgirl in a shop, for instance, $no#s about the plague or cholera -s far as % #as concerned the #orld ended in the late nineteenth century F G % did not read ne#spapers because, as % no# $no#, % feared un#elcome revelations, % turned on the radio only at certain hours of the day, % #as al#ays refining my defensive reactions, creating a $ind of "uarantine or immune system #hich, as % maintained my existence in a smaller and smaller space, protected me from anything that could be connected in any #ay, ho#ever distant, #ith my o#n early history C=?>.8D -usterlit42s discovery of his past, including his mother2s internment, transport and death, leads the reader, alongside the narrator, to a fresh appraisal of the camp at !heresiendstadt #here his mother #as held !he 8oseian crisis of identification lies in the connection bet#een -usterlit42s *avoidance system+ C2>8D and that of the reader, #ho is forced Cthrough the fascism of representationD to rediscover the ,olocaust Cthe representation of /ascismD along #ith the protagonist 5y analysis here depends on an

=:< assumption that the reader, #hile not being as ignorant as -usterlit4, nevertheless needs to be reminded of a sub(ect all too easily avoided, perhaps because he or she *fearFsG un#elcome revelations+ !he reader is forced to confront his or her attitudes to and $no#ledge of the ,olocaust and to consider #hether they have been ade"uate !hus Sebald2s novel ta$es on a $ind of moral purpose, a strategy of raising consciousness, of contributing to continuing remembrance by implicating the reader in society2s supposed problems of avoidance and denial ,o#ever, this reading reduces Sebald2s achievement to the status of socio.political tract, or at least to 3enette2s *ideological function+ #hich % earlier discounted 5oving far beyond such strategies, Austerlitz reminds us that straightfor#ard representation is no longer enough, and that forms must be adapted and even distorted in order to ma$e the sub(ect meaningful once more in a cultural climate that is so *fractured and sedimented+ C,uyssen, *5onument+ =9D /or example, at the moment of the reader2s closest potential identification #ith -usterlit4 K the search for an image of his lost mother K visual form is portrayed as being expressly manipulable and inconclusive -usterlit4 obtains a copy of a propaganda film made at the !heresiendstadt ghetto #here his mother #as held !his film purports to sho# a civili4ed and happy life being lived by the 7e#ish inhabitants -usterlit4, in an effort to find his mother2s face, has a *slo#.motion copy+ made, #hich *revealFsG previously hidden ob(ects and people, creating, by default as it #ere, a different sort of film altogether+ !his slo#ing.do#n changes the appearance of the inhabitants from being *cheerful+ and *apparently in perfect contentment+ to people *toiling in their sleep+, #eary, and apparently *hovering rather than #al$ing+, reminiscent to the narrator of *blurred+ and *dissolved+ ghostly images 5ean#hile even the sound on the slo#ed.do#n version is different, #ith the music changing from *merry pol$a+ to *funeral march+, and the *high.pitched, strenuous tones+ of the voice.over becoming a *menacing gro#l+ that reminds the narrator of caged beasts *driven out of their minds in captivity+ C9::.<0D !hus -usterlit42s manipulation of the film reveals the truth of the situation in !heresiendstadt, #hich is one of imprisoned slave labourers in appalling conditions, #ho #ill soon be sent East, murdered, and *dissolved+ from history 5oreover, once again Sebald2s use of fact and fiction in the same moment contributes to the effect of crisis and unsettlement %f -usterlit42s mother is imaginary, #ho are the faces in the stills apparently reproduced from the propaganda film, #hich appear on the page of

=:H Sebald2s text) Lver.identification #ith the protagonist2s mourning for a mother he never $ne# is impossible in such a position of uncertainty %n 8ose2s terms, #e avoid *,olocaust piety+ by emerging from the scene not #ith *sentimental tears+, but #ith *the dry eyes of a deep grief+ C<:D 6oth the problematisation of representation implicit in the !heresiendstadt episode of Austerlitz, and the creation of an empathic narrative persona, point to the essential self. reflexivity of Sebald2s techni"ue -s such, a parallel might be dra#n #ith 0inda ,utcheon2s category of *historiographic metafiction+, #hich is *obsessed #ith the "uestion of ho# #e can come to $no# the past today+ C::D, and in #hich *FnGarrative representation K fictive and historical K comes under F G scrutiny+ C=:D /or ,utcheon, this is inextricably lin$ed to the postmodern, the moment *#here documentary historical actuality meets formalist self.reflexivity and parody+ C>D !hough the novel form has al#ays been both fictional and #orldly, *postmodern historiographic metafiction merely foregrounds this inherent paradox by having its historical and socio.political grounding sit uneasily alongside its self.reflexivity+ C=:D ,o#ever, ,utcheon2s insistence on the postmodern nature of her category ma$es it problematic to apply to Sebald, a #riter #hose style and content are both steeped in the past - more productive #ay to assess Sebald2s self.reflexivity is offered by -nne /uchs in her monograph J.ie &chmerzenss uren der (eschichte6? /ur Poeti- der Erinnerung in )?(? &e+alds Prosa C200:D /uchs situates Sebald in the context of theories of cultural memory Sebald2s position, she explains, has been formed through experiencing the aftermath of the #ar Cpersonal memoryD, hearing or noticing the absence of parental accounts of that #ar Ccommunity memoryD, and later engaging #ith issues of 3erman collective memory Ccultural memoryD /uchs argues that the #ay to deal #ith the conflicts inherent in these memory definitions is to be methodologically self.reflexive 7 7 0ong summari4es /uchs2 analysis as follo#s; -n ethical mode of historical #riting, she argues, needs to reconstruct the past in a #ay that themati4es the ideological and affective determinants of such a reconstruction !his in turn produces certain #riting effects that lead to a Jvirtual empathy2 in #hich the difference bet#een self and other is made transparent C*6oo$ 8evie#+ =02D

=:> !hus #e return to the "uestion of empathy, #hich as % have argued is at the heart of Sebald2s narrative persona /uchs is using the same nuanced version of this term articulated by 0a1apra and #hich results from Sebald2s simultaneous gesture of proximity and distance Lther critics, ho#ever, have construed the empathic dimension of Sebald2s #or$ differently 5ar$ 5c1ulloh detects a theme of *democrati4ed empathy+ in #hich the suffering of all nature has e"ual value, because, in Sebald2s #orld, *everything is part of the same monism+; Essential to this monism is the premise that everything has its rightful place and is #orthy of attention, especially those things or beings that are neglected, forgotten, or nearly lost F G !hus, according to the logic of democrati4ed empathy, even the traumati4ation of a mere moth or butterfly is to be regarded as true suffering C*Stylistics+ 9?.:0D Surprisingly, 5c1ulloh does not ta$e up the implications of this for Sebald2s portrayal of the ,olocaust and its victims %ndeed, 5c1ulloh is more interested in the natural and holistic elements of Sebald2s #or$ 5ean#hile, 7an 1euppens calls the Sebaldian narrator2s vo# to avoid *#rongful trespass+ a *"ilderver+ot Fpictures banG+, a *prohibition against picturing or imagining another person all too vividly+ that results in an opposition bet#een *a cool and distanced approach FandG an empathic one+ C2<9D 6ut in the terms set out in the present study, empathy can contain a *cool and distanced approach+, rather than necessarily being in opposition to it /inally, 7 7 0ong argues that The Emigrants is situated bet#een the extreme positions of an uncritical empathy on the one hand and a pseudo.ob(ective empiricism on the other !his positioning *in.bet#een+ allo#s FSebaldG to offer models of intercultural and, indeed, intersub(ective narrative that #or$ against appropriation not by avoiding it F G but by themati4ing it in a self.reflexive manner C*%ntercultural %dentities+ <2HD -gain, this *in.bet#een+ position is not some#here bet#een *uncritical empathy+ and *pseudo.ob(ective empiricism+ but is 0a1aprian empathy in the terms set out in the present study !ransgenerational empathy is at once identification and ob(ectivity !his, along #ith the element of self.reflexivity identified by /uchs and 0ong, is crucial to Sebald2s empathic narrative persona, a figure #ho, throughout his narratives, treads a delicate path bet#een memory and history in a simultaneous gesture of proximity and

=:8 distance !he next chapter deals #ith a novel very different in style that nevertheless achieves similar goals

=:? Chapter 5 2An act of replacement4: duality$ post(postmemory and a sence in 6onathan 1afran 7oer,s Everything is Illuminated %n the previous chapter % considered transgenerational empathy through the example of ' 3 Sebald2s narrative persona, a figure one generation removed from the ,olocaust yet nevertheless connected to the events by geographical and personal ties !his chapter #ill explore the extent to #hich other narratives, #hose authors, personae and characters have greater generational and spatial distance than those of Sebald, may still achieve an empathic relation to the past 5y main focus is on 7onathan Safran /oer2s Everything is Illuminated C2002D, #hich deals #ith the relationship bet#een present and past through the theme of grandfathers and grandchildren %n this novel, t#o young men, one 7e#ish -merican, one U$rainian, search for the truth about their grandfathers, both of #hom #ere directly affected by the ,olocaust Such "uests may be held to symboli4e society2s continuing desire to unearth secrets from the traumatic past and to evaluate their effect on our lives in the present %n an essay published in 200=, the historian Saul /riedlMnder offers a psychoanalytic vie# of this process of discovery; !he Jgeneration of the grandchildren2, mainly among Europeans C3ermans in particularD but among 7e#s as #ell, has sufficient distance from the events in terms of both the sheer passage of time and the lac$ of personal involvement to be able to confront the full impact of the past !hus, the expansion of memory of the Shoah could be interpreted as the gradual lifting, induced by the passage of time, of collective repression C*,istory+ 2>:D ,o#ever, this confrontation #ith the past #ill lead to revelations and reorientations *lac$ of personal involvement+ does not mean that the impact is necessarily lessened, particularly #hen distant familial connections haunt present generations 3ermans, 7e#s and others continue to confront the facts of their ancestors2 involvement and the implications for their o#n sense of identity -lthough the effect of this may eventually decrease as the decades and centuries pass, for no# the corrosive effect of past evil on present consciousness remains pervasive 0iterary narratives are beginning to emerge that address this situation by moving beyond the *second generation+, the children of survivors, to the third and even fourth

=<0 generations after the event Bancy ,uston2s novel Fault Lines C200>D explores the effect of the less #ell $no#n Ba4i policy of *3ermanisation+ on its victims and their descendants %n an *-uthor2s Bote+, ,uston explains ho# children #ith an *-ryan+ appearance from occupied countries such as U$raine and Poland #ere ta$en from their parents and sent to Le+ens+orn C/ountain of 0ifeD centres, and from there to approved adoptive parents, to gro# up as 3ermans and replenish a population decimated by the Ba4is2 empire.building #ars ,uston2s novel addresses this topic through an unusual structure, consisting of four sections, each narrated by a different six.year.old child in a different time; Sol, 200:A 8andall, =?82A Sadie, =?H2A and Sristina, =?::.:< Each narrator is the child of the next, meaning that 8andall, Sadie and Sristina are Sol2s father, grandmother and great.grandmother respectively !he reverse order of these narratives means that the explanation for each character2s emotional difficulties is mysterious and revelatory - version of the story told in normal chronological order #ould go something li$e this; Sristina has been ta$en from her U$rainian parents and raised as an -ryan -fter the #ar her original parents cannot be found, so she is sent to a family #ith U$rainian heritage in !oronto !his has repercussions for the next three generations ,er daughter Sadie #itnesses Sristina2s violent sex #ith another Le+ens+orn survivor Sadie gro#s up obsessed #ith the ,olocaust and moves #ith her family to %srael in order to research it, ma$ing a lasting impression on her son, 8andall 8andall2s son Solomon, mean#hile, is the most obviously mentally disturbed, believing himself to have godli$e po#ers and indulging in psychosexual fantasies relating to the current 5iddle Eastern conflict and 3ulf 'ar -t the beginning of the novel Cand the end of the chronological storyD, Sristina is persuaded into a reunion #ith her adoptive sister from her days as a 3erman child !he t#o old #omen fight over a doll that one had promised the other, in a climactic moment placed early in the narrative that initially appears comedic but gains tragic resonance as the deep #ounds imparted by the Ba4i policy are revealed !hus the Ba4i pro(ect of removing children from their families echoes do#n the *fault lines+ of generations, not only in the emotions and imagination of descendants but also in the unreconciled hatred bet#een *pure+ 3ermans and their fello# Europeans ,uston sho#s ho# identities can become irrevocably damaged by family upheaval /or example, Sadie, on discovering at age six that her mother had a 3erman bac$ground, uses this to explain, through her inner demon, #hy she has been unhappy and confused;

=<= *$o# you -no# #here the evil comes from, says my /iend, you6ve +een living a lie since the day you #ere +orn+ C22?, emphasis in originalD - similar interior voice Calso sho#n through italici4ationD afflicts *5icha+ in 8achel Seiffert2s novel The .ar- %oom C200=D !he 3erman grandchild of a 'affen SS soldier, 5icha obsessively researches the ,olocaust #hile chiding himself as to his motivation; *&tu id to feel guilty a+out things that #ere done +efore I #as +orn+ C2:>DA *Even #hen I cry a+out it, I6m crying for myself? $ot for the eo le #ho #ere -illed+ C9>>D 0i$e Sadie, he realises that important secrets have been #ithheld, and insists on finding them out for himself, in a "uest #hich alienates his loved ones and strains his relationships 5icha has a habit of rehearsing to himself his family connectionsA *%n "ueues, on trains, in idle moments, he #ill lay them out in his headA layers of time and geography+ C22=D ,e remembers his *Lpa+, -s$an 6oell, #ho died #hen 5icha #as a child, as $ind, attentive, and a gifted artist ,o#ever, 6oell is also $no#n to have served in the 'affen SS in 6elarus before being captured by the 8ussians and interned for nine years after the #ar 5icha cannot reconcile his personal memories #ith the possibility that his grandfather #as a perpetrator of atrocities, and travels to 6elarus to loo$ for the truth %n the area in #hich his grandfather served, the local museum2s photographs of Ba4is massacring 7e#s do not sho# 6oell2s face ,o#ever, 5icha finds an old man #ho lived through that period, 7o4ef Solesni$ Solesni$ confirms 5icha2s fears, saying that he remembers the fe# #ho refused to participate in the $illings, and that 6oell #as not one of them !hough Solesni$2s recollections are tainted #ith his o#n dubious past, 5icha, adding them to the accumulation of evidence produced by his researches, is fully convinced; )here is my roofK I have no reason not to +elieve it? There are no ictures of him holding a gun to someone6s head, +ut I am sure that he did that, and ulled the trigger, too? The camera #as ointing else#here, shutter o ening and closing on another murder of another *e#, done +y another man? "ut my 7 a #as no more than a fe# aces a#ay C9>0.=, emphasis in originalD 5icha2s respectable 3erman family do not share his conviction, or are fearful of confronting it ,is sister tries to suggest that the discovery of 6oell2s secret should not change his status as loved grandparent; People do terrible things %t #as #ar %2m not excusing it Bot at all 6ut it #as #ar and it #as cruel and confusing and he couldn2t tell right from #rong any more, and he did something terrible F G % don2t really $no#, of course, but

=<2 maybe sometimes they believe in these things, or they become them, or maybe sometimes they don2t !hey (ust do them and then they go on C9>9.:D Such expressions of moral ambiguity have led some critics to accuse Seiffert of revisionism 1arole -ngier, for example, chides Seiffert for choosing to focus on the pain of ordinary 3ermans both during and after the #ar; *!he sufferings of those #ho espoused an ideology of =,000.year domination and genocide are not the same as the sufferings of innocent people, even after more than <H years+ C9H.>D Such criticism, #hich insists that all perpetrators must be lin$ed to the ideology served by their actions, misses Seiffert2s point about human fallibility and the contingencies impinging on personal agency 5ore importantly, it highlights the enduring importance of the issues at sta$e %n raising the "uestion and provo$ing such reactions, Seiffert2s novel demonstrates the continuing po#er of the no# relatively distant past to influence thin$ing in the present, symboli4ed by the particular dynamics of the relationship bet#een grandparent and grandchild %t is this relationship that forms the core of Everything is Illuminated, in #hich a grandfather #ith a terrible #ar secret tells his grandson; *% am not a bad person % am a good person #ho has lived in a bad time+ C22>D !his novel may only be understood in relation to the circumstances of its production %ts author, 7onathan Safran /oer, #as born in =?>> and gre# up in the U S - 'hen still a college student, aged nineteen, he travelled to U$raine in search of his 7e#ish family history ,is grandfather, 0e#is Safran, had escaped from the Ba4i assault in =?:= that #iped out his village and $illed most of its occupants, including Safran senior2s #ife and daughter Safran met his second #ife, /oer2s grandmother, in a displaced person2s camp in Poland before moving to -merica and continuing the family line /oer2s interest in this history #as spar$ed by his mother passing him a photograph of Safran #ith the family #ho helped him escape ,e travelled to the region in search of any surviving members of this family, and of any remains of the village, but found no trace #hatsoever !his experience led to the #riting of the novel, in #hich /oer constructs a much more eventful version of his (ourney, extrapolating an unrestrained narrative of farce and fantasy from his experience %n an intervie#, /oer has described ho# he sees this process of transforming real life into fiction; *%n a certain sense the boo$ #asn2t an act of creation so much as it #as an act of replacement % encountered a hole K and it #as

=<9 li$e the hole that % found #as in myself, and one that % #anted to try to fill up+ C'agner =:D % interrogate the terms of this statement later in this chapter Everything is Illuminated is an experimental and semi.autobiographical novel that addresses themes of generational memory, family secrets, and the ethical relation of the present to the past through a combination of picares"ue narrative, epistolary interludes and magical realism Despite its complex structure, it is at base a "uest, a (ourney that leads in all its various strands to#ards one dar$ destination; the ,olocaust !he novel contains t#o narrative strands, one present.day, one historical !he first may be seen as a fantasy based on /oer2s real.life (ourney Ln 2nd 7uly =??>, exactly a year after U$raine2s adoption of a ne# democratic constitution, *7onathan Safran /oer+ arrives from Be# Eor$ carrying a photograph of his grandfather, *Safran+ %n the photo alongside Safran are the family #ho saved him from the Ba4is, a young girl and her parents Ln the bac$ is an ambiguous inscription; *!his is me #ith -ugustine, /ebruary 2=, =?:9+ 7onathan surmises that *me+ refers to Safran, *-ugustine+ to the young girl, and that there #as a relationship bet#een them -s forty.four years have passed, the parents are probably dead, but -ugustine might still be aliveA 7onathan2s purpose is to find and than$ her, but also, as a 7e#ish -merican descendant of immigrants, to trace his European ancestral roots !o do so he must find his grandfather2s former shtetl, *!rachimbrod+ 7onathan2s search is narrated by his U$rainian translator and guide, *-lex Perchov+, in the form of chapters C*divisions+D sent later to 7onathan for editing and approval Each division is accompanied by a letter #hich adds bac$ground and alludes to suggestions for narrative changes by 7onathan in his CunrevealedD replies !hus the notional act of #riting is divided bet#een t#o fictional characters Each chapter describes an episode in the initially farcical but increasingly sombre (ourney to#ards the discoveries C*illumination+D made by both young men !heir driver is -lex2s grandfather, #ho is inexplicably accompanied by a psychotic guide dog !he humour of this section is at the expense both of 7onathan, #hose search is both incomprehensible and lucrative for the U$rainians, and of -lex and his grandfather, #ho are comically incompetent Bevertheless they eventually find #hat remains of !rachimbrod; an old #oman living in isolation #ho has preserved, in labelled boxes, a motley collection of salvaged mementoes and bric.a.brac from the destroyed shtetl 'hen told they are searching for

=<: !rachimbrod, she replies; *Eou are here % am it+ C==8D She ta$es them to the site, no# an empty field #ith a pla"ue commemorating the community2s destruction !hough not the -ugustine they #ere loo$ing for Cher name is 0istaD, she nevertheless remembers sharing her youth #ith 7onathan2s grandfather before the #ar ,ere the tone of the novel changes and t#o ,olocaust tales are related 0ista claims to have survived the Ba4i assault on !rachimbrod because, pregnant, she #as sadistically shot bet#een the legs and left to cra#l a#ayA the baby too$ the bullet and she survived the rest of the #ar hiding in the nearby forest 0i$e fello# ,olocaust survivor 8osa in 1ynthia L4ic$2s The &ha#l, 0ista still believes that her lost child is alive; J*% must go in and care for my baby,2 she said J%t is missing me+2 C/oer, Everything =?9D !he second story is told by -lex2s grandfather, #ho is prompted by one of 0ista2s photographs to reveal his o#n momentous Cthough heavily trailedD secret -gain, this tale recalls earlier ,olocaust literature, in this case 'illiam Styron2s &o hie6s Choice Bo# revealed as *Eli+, the grandfather admits that he is not from Ldessa as previously claimed, but from a village near !rachimbrod - gentile, he feels that he betrayed his 7e#ish friend ,erschel during a Ba4i round up !he officer in charge ordered the villagers to point to 7e#s in their midst, on pain of death !hough Eli2s choice #as bet#een pointing at ,erschel or being $illed along #ith his o#n #ife and baby, his life has been ruined by guilt; *F,erschelG #as my best friend F C228D !his repentant confession C#hich contrasts mar$edly #ith his earlier casual anti. SemitismD is also used to explain the dysfunction #ithin the family, a sub.plot narrated in -lex2s letters to 7onathan !he baby saved by Eli2s so.called act of betrayal gre# up to be -lex2s violent, alcoholic father !hus it is suggested that the father2s personality problems, and their conse"uent effect on -lex, stem from the repressed secrets of his origin ,ere Eli explains to -lex #hy he moved a#ay from the scene of his shame after the #ar and resettled in Ldessa; % #anted so much for Fmy sonG to live a good life, #ithout death and #ithout choices and #ithout shame 6ut % #as not a good father, % must inform you % #as the #orst father % desired to remove him from everything that #as bad, but instead % gave him badness upon badness - father is al#ays responsible for ho# his son is Eou must understand C2:>D G -nd % murdered him+

=<<

-t the end of the novel, Eli commits suicide -lex, ho#ever, #ho symboli4es the economic problems of the former Soviet republics, in #hich the population loo$ to the 'est #hile being constrained by their ties to the East, eventually stands up to his father, ta$es charge of his family, and gives up on his dream to move to -merica !his strand of the novel, then, runs the gamut of #ell.#orn ,olocaust themes; sadistic cruelty, impossible choices, miraculous escape, traumatic memory of survivors, guilty secrets of bystanders, and corrosive legacy for subse"uent generations ,o#ever, it is saved from clichQ by the narrative verve #ith #hich the eye.#itness testimony is related, using ungrammatical stream.of.consciousness to convey both psychological trauma and the temporal s#eep of horrific events Ca techni"ue developed further in /oer2s later novel E,tremely Loud and Incredi+ly Close, #hich deals #ith the events of * ?I==+D ,ere, Eli is telling -lex ho# he remembers the Ba4i round.up in his village; F G #ho is a 7e# the 3eneral as$ed me again and % felt on my other hand the hand of 3randmother and % $ne# that she #as holding your father and that he #as holding you and that you #ere holding your children % am so afraid of dying % am soafraidofdying %amsoafraidofdying %amsoafraidofdying and % said he is a 7e# #ho is a 7e# the 3eneral as$ed and ,erschel embraced my hand #ith much strength and he #as my friend he #as my best friend F G C2<0D !his idea of potentiality, expressed by the metaphor of *holding+ one2s descendants #ithin oneself, both reflects and inverts the theme of generational memory #hich is at the heart of the novel !his theme is the driving force of the second strand of the narrative, an imagined history of !rachimbrod focusing on the years =>?=.=80: and =?9:.:= !his magical realist account o#es much to 3abriel 3arc^a 5_r"ue42 7ne Hundred ;ears of &olitude, not (ust in style but also in its themes of the circularity of history and the conse"uences of remembrance %t consists of short episodes that alternate #ith the present.day "uest story %n the overarching narrative time of the novel, these chapters are being #ritten by 7onathan, #ho has no# returned to Be# Eor$A he sends them to -lex for comments, (ust as -lex is #riting and sending his *divisions+ to 7onathan from Ldessa 7onathan recreates !rachimbrod in vast detail, including imagined entries in the shtetl2s *6oo$ of 8ecurring Dreams+ and *6oo$ of -ntecedents+, apparently in order to highlight the tragic poignancy of a lost community ,o#ever, the story of the shtetl2s main importance to 7onathan lies in the connections

=<H he ma$es bet#een its legends and his o#n presumed ancestors, as he audaciously moves beyond his relationship #ith his grandfather bac$ through several further branches of his supposed family tree 7onathan2s account of the shtetl begins #ith the myth of ho# !rachimbrod got its name %n =>?=, a passing #agon driven by *!rachim 6+ is said to have lost course and sun$ to the bottom of the river, releasing a #ealth of exotic flotsam to the surface Lne item rescued from the accident is a baby, named 6rod after the river in #hich she is found, and claimed by 7onathan as his five.time great.grandmother !he second legend relates to 6rod2s husband, $no#n as *the Sol$er+, #ho miraculously survives a flourmill incident, leaving him #ith a circular sa# embedded, coxcomb.li$e, in his s$ull -fter dying a fe# years later, the Sol$er2s body is bron4ed into a statue, $no#n as the *Dial+ because the circular sa# #or$s as a sundial !he Dial becomes both a good luc$ charm for the !rachimbroders and a site of generational memory for the Sol$er2s descendants !he narrative then (umps to the =?90s, focusing on Safran, 7onathan2s grandfatherA here the t#o strands begin to merge, as this Safran corresponds to the man remembered by 0ista in the present.day narrative ,o#ever, in the shtetl strand Safran2s story is turned into legend 7onathan extrapolates #ildly from short entries found in Safran2s (ournal to create an improbable tale of a sexually rapacious teenager #ith romantic longings Extra.textually, mean#hile, Safran eventually merges #ith /oer2s historical grandfather; he marries, loses his #ife and baby in the Ba4i assault, escapes, and immigrates to the United States after the #ar Everything is Illuminated is, then, both structurally and thematically dualistic !he alternating narrative strands enable the climax to be approached from t#o different tra(ectories, one loo$ing bac$#ards in time #hile travelling to#ards in space, the other moving for#ard in time from the distant past 6oth converge on the same geographical point, #hich gradually assumes the terrible status of inevitable target 7ust as 7onathan and -lex reach the former site of !rachimbrod, the shtetl narrative reaches the time #hen the 3ermans arrived there in =?:= !hus the ,olocaust as an event is represented through both the first.person memories of CfictionalD survivors in the present and a magical realist *historical+ account !his in turn enables a dual perspective on the ,olocaust as theme; first, its continuing legacy, represented by the corrosive effect on victims2 descendants and the urge to search for tracesA and second, the human loss of

=<> families and communities, made poignant through description of their heritage, myths, genealogy, and daily lives Simultaneously remembrance and commemoration, the novel see$s to sho# ho# the ,olocaust both changed history and continues to reverberate in the present ,o#ever, the crucial component of the novel2s duality is the structural relation bet#een the characters *7onathan Safran /oer+ and *-lex Perchov+ 7onathan, signalled as a version of the author by correspondence of name, might be considered, li$e Sebald2s narrator, in terms of a narrative persona ,o#ever, in contrast to Sebald2s first.person focalisation, in /oer2s novel 7onathan is represented through the narration of another 7onathan never spea$s for himselfA #e only learn of him through -lex2s account !hus #hile in Sebald2s narratives the self.reflexive interrogation of the ethics of #riting is rendered as interiority C(ust as Seiffert portrays 5icha2s self."uestioning through italicsD, in /oer the issues are addressed at one remove through accusation by a third party - couple of examples #ill illustrate this contrast %n The Emigrants, Sebald2s empathic narrative persona confronts his doubts in digressional asides /or example, in the section on *5ax /erber+, he explains ho# he spent a #inter trying to #rite up an account of /erber2s memories; %t #as an arduous tas$ Lften % could not get on for hours or days at a time, and not infre"uently % unravelled #hat % had done, continuously tormented by scruples that #ere ta$ing tighter hold and steadily paralysing me !hese scruples concerned not only the sub(ect of my narrative, #hich % felt % could not do (ustice to, but also the entire "uestionable business of #riting C290D %n Everything is Illuminated, in contrast, 7onathan2s scruples are rendered as -lex2s criticisms -lex becomes, in effect, a site of self.reflexivity, commenting both on 7onathan2s actions in U$raine and on his #riting of the shtetl history ,ere, for example, -lex gives his reaction to 7onathan2s exaggerated tale of Safran2s sexual con"uests; ,o# can you do this to your grandfather, #riting about his life in such a manner) 1ould you #rite in this manner if he #as alive) -nd if not, #hat does that signify) F G 'e are being very nomadic #ith the truth, yes) !he both of us) Do you thin$ that this is acceptable #hen #e are #riting about things that occurred) C=>?D

=<8 Such "uestions serve as a self.reflexive examination of the ethical issues raised by the #riting of this novel 1hoosing to express these doubts through another character2s reaction imposes a layer of distance bet#een narration and protagonist that perhaps reflects the greater distance bet#een /oer and his sub(ect than is the case for Sebald, #hose posture is one of close personal connection to the people he describes /oer, t#o generations removed, perhaps cannot find a first.person voice to describe events in #hich he too$ no part, and, #hile appearing in his narrative, nevertheless chooses to invent another character through #hich to vie# his o#n Creal and imaginedD actions ,o#ever, this only holds for one strand of the novel %n the other K the largely third. person narration of the *history+ of the shtetl K 7onathan occasionally lapses into the first person to establish connection #ith his supposed ancestors Describing the lottery in =>?= to find an adoptive father for 6rod, 7onathan #rites that the 8abbi *put the letters in her crib, vo#ing to give my great.great.great.great.great.grandmother K and, in a certain sense, me K to the author of the first note she grabbed for+ C2=D !his *certain sense+ is a deeply felt bloodline connection to his ancestors 'hen *Ean$el D+ becomes 6rod2s father, 7onathan #rites; *'e #ere in good hands+ C22D ,ere *#e+ refers to 6rod, 7onathan, and all the generations in bet#een 0ater, he even describes his visit to U$raine as a homecoming, despite never having set foot in the country; *% am the final piece of proof that all citi4ens #ho leave eventually return+ C:>D !he theme of identification #ith ancestors also appears in the story of *Safran+ in the =?90s, #ho in late adolescence realises that his resemblance to *the Sol$er+, as preserved in the Dial statue, is a mixed blessing; Safety and profound sadness; he #as gro#ing into his place in the familyA he loo$ed unmista$ably li$e his father2s father2s father2s father2s father, and because of that, because his cleft chin spo$e of the same mongrel gene.ste# Cstirred by the chefs of #ar, disease, opportunity, love, and false loveD, he #as granted a place in a long line K certain assurances of being and permanence, but also a burdensome restriction of movement ,e #as no longer free C=2=D 6y embedding this theme of transgenerational connection into a novel dealing #ith the ,olocaust, /oer may ris$ a problematic ethics of representation Do his characters2 moments of ancestor.identification amount to #hat 0a1apra calls *unchec$ed identification, vicarious experience, and surrogate victimage+ C)riting :0D) Does /oer someho# claim affinity #ith his 7e#ish ancestors and thereby assume understanding of

=<? their experience of persecution) % #ould suggest that /oer2s dualistic narrative, using multiple narrative voices, goes some #ay to#ards counteracting such tendencies by enabling him to approach the ,olocaust #ith simultaneous proximity and distance, that is, #ith empathy rather than identification - version of the author K 7onathan K ta$es part in the modern day story, as it #ere in person, and in his imagined history of !rachimbrod ma$es many explicit lin$s bet#een himself and his ancestors Eet by using another character, -lex, to tell the present.day story and to critici4e 7onathan2s #riting and actions, /oer provides a site of self.reflexivity and critical ob(ectivity Lne #ay of considering this structure #ould be to read -lex as another side of 7onathan2s personality, or as his conscienceA they combine, in effect, to form one narrative persona Proximity and distance, represented by 7onathan and -lex respectively, thus co.exist in a dual ersona, #hich has the potential to enable an empathic approach to history %n Family Frames: Photogra hy, $arrative, and Postmemory C=??>D, 5arianne ,irsch coins the influential term ostmemory, #hich is *distinguished from memory by generational distance and from history by deep personal connection+ and #hich *characteri4es the experience of those #ho gro# up dominated by narratives that preceded their birth+ C22D !his appears to offer a fit #ith /oer2s combination of critical distance and personal proximity Cthough (ust ho# *dominated+ his childhood #as by the past is speculationD 5oreover, (ust as ,irsch2s theoretical analysis of ancestral history and memory is underlaid by an interest in the po#er of family photographs, so the plot of Everything is Illuminated is driven by t#o such pictures #hich exert extraordinary motivating force upon the characters - photograph of -lex2s grandfather alongside his #ife, baby and murdered friend ,erschel, discovered in one of the boxes of !rachimbrod remnants, prompts a #ar story and confession hitherto repressed for over forty years Even more crucial to the narrative is the photograph of 7onathan2s grandfather and the family #ho sheltered him during the #ar, #hich inspires the (ourney to Europe in the first place ,irsch sees old family photographs as a po#erful medium bet#een memory and postmemory !o develop her thesis, she invo$es 8oland 6arthes2 account, in Camera Lucida, of recognising his five.year.old mother in an old photograph 6arthes sees such photographs as *a physical, material emanation of a past reality+ C,irsch, Family HD 'hile noting that this assertion disregards both the representational nature of

=H0 photographs and their vulnerability to manipulation and falsification, ,irsch nevertheless argues that 6arthes2 comments reveal a po#erful promise of a $ind of truth held #ithin family photographs; *!he picture exists because something #as there, and thus, in my o#n family pictures, %, li$e 6arthes, can hope to find some truth about the past, mine and my family2s K ho#ever mediated+ CHD ,o#ever, ,irsch departs from 6arthes by arguing that photographs do not have any direct connection to the past; *Photography2s relation to loss and death is not to mediate the process of individual and collective memory but to bring the past bac$ in the form of a ghostly revenant, emphasi4ing, at the same time, its immutable and irreversible pastness and irretrievability+ C20D Postmemory, similarly, exists at one remove from the actual past %ts *connection to its ob(ect or source is mediated not through recollection but through an imaginative investment and creation+ C22D Postmemory, in common #ith photographs ta$en by people other than ourselves, contains an implicit ac$no#ledgment of its intrinsic separation from the past to #hich it refers /oer, in his real.life (ourney to Europe, hoped that his grandfather2s photograph #ould lead to some truth about his family %nstead, his search revealed precisely the *immutable and irreversible pastness and irretrievability+ of the pastA as he stated in an intervie#, *% (ust found K nothing -t all+ C'agner =:D 6ut in his novel, he could be said to use his postmemory, triggered by the photograph, to recreate the past through an *imaginative investment and creation+ ,o#ever, the issue is more complicated !he example ,irsch uses is -rt Spiegelman2s !aus, #hich dramati4es the interaction bet#een the authorial persona and his survivor father !he father, ,irsch argues, mediates bet#een Spiegelman2s memory and postmemory by providing commentary on three family photographs, #hich are moreover reproduced in the boo$ alongside the comic strip panels ,irsch terms this strategy the *aesthetics of postmemory+ C:0D ,o#ever, in Everything is Illuminated, no such mediation is providedA the photograph is given to 7onathan #ithout comment, only a cryptic inscription on its bac$ !his signals the distance bet#een 7onathan and the past, unbridgeable unless by the $ind of imaginative identification underta$en in his *history+ of !rachimbrod !he difference, of course, bet#een Spiegelman and /oer is that the former is the child of survivors, a member of #hat is often referred to as the *second generation,+ #hereas the latter is born even later, thus enacting #hat might be termed a third.generation aesthetics of

=H= ost.postmemory =9 /oer2s *imaginative investment and creation+ is entirely his o#n, and does not benefit, li$e Spiegelman2s, from the input of an eye.#itness from the previous generation ,ere, then, it is the truth.telling, evidential nature of photography #hich is at sta$e %n her assessment of the second generation, ,irsch concurs #ith 6arthes that some trace of the past may be found through photographs 6ut % #ould argue that third.generation texts of post.postmemory precisely refute this possibility %n The .ar- %oom, for example, the unreliability of photographic evidence is a recurring theme %n addition to the story of 5icha discussed above, this *novella triptych+ Cas the critic Petra 8au calls itD includes t#o other, apparently unconnected narratives %n the first, *,elmut+ is a young 6erliner in the =?90s #ho, o#ing to a slight disability, does not (oin the #idespread army mobili4ation but stays behind to #itness the city2s destruction -n expert amateur photographer, he attempts to record the events on his camera but #ith limited success Ln one occasion he comes upon a group of gypsies being herded into truc$s by the police Despite his best efforts, #hen he comes to develop the pictures they *convey none of the chaos and cruelty+ C:0D, and even fail to clearly sho# #hat happened Seiffert2s second narrative, mean#hile, is set at the end of the #ar =2.year.old 0ore, the daughter of interned Ba4i parents, leads her younger siblings on foot across divided 3ermany -long the #ay she encounters photographs pinned up on trees depicting the horrors of the camps ,o#ever, this evidence is met #ith disbelief by others -s one young man is overhead saying on a train; *%t2s all a set.up !he pictures are al#ays out of focus, aren2t they) Lr dar$, or grainy -nything to ma$e them unclear -nd the people in those photos are actors !he -mericans have staged it all, maybe the 8ussians helped them, #ho $no#s+ C=><D /inally, in *5icha+, the protagonist steals photographs from his grandmother to help in his search for the truth about his grandfather, but instead he relies on the memory of an old man and his o#n reasoned deduction Eet memory also fails #hen the distance is so great -s Efraim Sicher #rites of Seiffert2s central metaphor; *!he dar$ room, #here the negatives of historical memory are developed, remains dar$, shedding no light on $no#ledge of the past+
=9

1hristoph 8ibbat also ma$es this point, noting that /oer is *t#ice removed from events,+ C2=2D and that he *$no#s only Jpost.postmemory2 Cbecause that is all there is to $no#D+ C2=9D

=H2 CHolocaust $ovel =?HD !he same may be said of Everything is Illuminated, #hose title should be read as deeply ironic 7onathan2s photograph of *-ugustine+ proves to be a red herringA she is never found and never #ill be %n this novel, though photographs provo$e the search, they cannot in themselves lead to $no#ledge of the past #hen the chain of human connection is bro$en by generational distance 'here Spiegelman2s father #as on hand to help explain his ambiguous photographs, /oer2s pictures exist at one remove from lived reality Despite this difference, Spiegelman and /oer, as fello# -mericans, share #hat ,irsch calls a sense of *diasporic+ or *temporal and spatial exile+ C2:<D from their ancestry ,irsch argues that European.extraction 7e#s of her CsecondD generation feel a *sense of exile from a #orld #e have never seen and #hich, because it #as irreparably changed or destroyed not by natural or historical change over time but by the sudden violent annihilation of the ,olocaust, #e #ill never see+ C2:2D C%n Everything is Illuminated, this irreparable destruction is illustrated by the empty field #here !rachimbrod once stood D ,irsch goes on; *Bone of us ever $no#s the #orld of our parents ,o# much more ambivalent is this curiosity for children of ,olocaust survivors, exiled from a #orld that has ceased to exist, that has been violently erased+ C2:2.9D !his raises the "uestion; ,o# much more ambivalent is such curiosity for grandchildren of survivors li$e /oer Cand 7onathanD) %f children of survivors *forge an aesthetics of postmemory #ith photographs as the icons of their ambivalent longing+ C2:HD, #hat is the nature of an aesthetics of post.postmemory, similarly curious, similarly inspired by photographs, but containing even less hope of direct connection to the past) -n important dimension of this aesthetic is socio.geographical Lne #ay of vie#ing Everything is Illuminated is through the lens of t#enty.first century -merican attitudes to#ards the ,olocaust !his has certainly been the focus of the fe# articles on this novel that have so far appeared -li$i @arvogli, for example, notes that for 7onathan, *the trauma of the ,olocaust resides in Europe+ C8?D, that is, his conception of the past is as geographical as it is historical Echoing ,irsch2s point about temporal and spatial exile, @arvogli continues; ,is F7onathan2sG desire to uncover his grandfather2s past and thus complete the picture of his family history sho#s that even a young -merican, born in the late

=H9 =?>0s, cannot have a complete sense of his identity and his place in the #orld #hile he remains ignorant of ho# European history affected his o#n forefathers !o be 7e#ish -merican, the novel suggests, is to be someho# incomplete, since part of the meaning of that identity is lin$ed #ith a past that happened else#here C8?D ,ere a claim is made for 7e#ish -merican experience #hich may (ust as easily apply to anyone #ith an immigrant bac$ground Similarly, 0ee 6ehlman, #ho analyses /oer alongside t#o other contemporary #riters, 5ichael 1habon and Bathan Englander, argues; 'hat stands out about the recent fictions under discussion here is the degree to #hich they emphasi4e the no#.vast temporal and cultural distance bet#een late t#entieth and t#enty.first century -merica and the ,olocaust, as #ell as the gap bet#een our time and the -merican experience of the ,olocaust for previous generations CH0.=D -gain, this *distance+ is surely common to all historical fiction, not (ust -merican novels about the ,olocaust ,ere % am perhaps being disingenuousA both @arvogli and 6ehlman2s arguments spring from the novel2s explicit engagement #ith the idea of -merica through -lex2s misconceptions about the country and the mismatch of cultures figured by 7onathan2s experience in U$raine ,o#ever, articles li$e @arvogli2s that emphasi4e *7e#ish -merican experience+ may serve to reinforce the tendentious suggestion that ,olocaust memory in some #ay resides in, or belongs to, the modern. day United States %ndeed, #hat seems to be informing the -merican focus both in /oer2s novel and its criti"ues by others is the recent outpouring of self.criticism in -merican discourse, most notably articulated in Peter Bovic$2s The Holocaust in American Life C=???D and Borman /in$elstein2s The Holocaust Industry C2000D /in$elstein calls the #ay the idea of the *,olocaust+ has become central to modern -merican culture a *fraudulent misappropriation of history for ideological purposes+ CH=D /or /in$elstein these purposes are often to do #ith economic appropriation and exploitation ,o#ever, as Bovic$ points out, they also may conceal an evasive and morally reprehensible Eurocentricism or *screen memory+ that serves to obscure the guilt and reparation o#ed by -merica to its o#n history, for example the genocide of natives by European settlers and the enslavement of -frican.-mericans -s Bovic$ puts it;

=H:

F G the pretense that the ,olocaust is an -merican memory K that -mericans, either diffusely, as part of 'estern civili4ation, or specifically, as complicit bystanders, share responsibility for the ,olocaust K #or$s to devalue the notion of historical responsibility %t leads to the shir$ing of those responsibilities that do belong to -mericans as they confront their past, their present, and their future C=<, emphasis in originalD !his argument could, of course, lead to an in#ard.loo$ing, parochial stance that disregards ,olocaust history Beil 0evi ma$es this point, noting that the concept of *screen memories+ originates in /reud2s =8?? essay *`ber Dec$erinnerungen,+ #hich dra#s on the 3erman verb dec-en, to cover 0evi argues that this leads to a problem; any balanced comparison of collective memories is difficult if one is al#ays presumed to *cover+ the other 0evi further points out that for /reud, screen memories are distinguished by a vivid but insignificant content %f #e ta$e the psychoanalytic term seriously, then those #ho promote the idea of the ,olocaust as screen memory might be seen as proposing that the ,olocaust is an improbable, even pu44ling thing for certain countries to remember; #hy remember events that too$ place at such geographical distance from your o#n nation) !he borders of the nation state become the boundaries of proper and significant national memory C=2HD 1hristoph 8ibbat ta$es up this point, putting /oer2s novel in the context of the conflicting claims in that country for -frican.-merican and 7e#ish suffering Echoing 0evi, 8ibbat notes that this contest has led to a fear that *FtGhe murder of the European 7e#s might become a marginal sub(ect+ C202D, a fear #hich novels li$e /oer2s may serve to allay Susanne 8ohr goes further by arguing that Everything is Illuminated represents a critiBue of ,olocaust discourse, rather than merely a reflection or product of the intellectual climate in #hich it #as #ritten 8ohr says that /oer2s novel addresses not the ,olocaust itself but the *rhetoric of ,olocaust representation+ C2:=D #hich has accrued since the event %t deals #ith *not the unrepresentable but the discourse of the unrepresentable+ C2:2, emphasis in originalD /or 8ohr, this excuses the farcical and slapstic$ humour of the novel, #hich is aimed not at the ,olocaust itself, but instead *targets the transfer of $no#ledge, commemoration practices, processes of mediali4ation and -mericani4ation involved in representations of the Shoah+ C2::D

=H< 8ohr highlights an important element of the novel, but this is not the #hole story Everything is Illuminated cannot be reduced to a disinterested, distanced, self. consciously postmodernist meta.discourse, for three reasons; first, the personal investment of its authorA secondly, the use of first.person memories of CfictionalD survivorsA and thirdly, the correspondence bet#een *!rachimbrod+ and a real shtetl of that name, #hich, li$e /oer2s creation, #as destroyed during 'orld 'ar %% !his third aspect, the re.imagining of real events, usually goes by the name of historical fiction ,o#ever, /oer2s novel aims to transcend genre fiction through its use of magical realism, complications of narrative time and voice, and apparent lac$ of reference to the historical record Eet by fictionalising events related to the ,olocaust, the novel strays into ethically contested territory %n order to address this issue % #ill begin by comparing /oer2s !rachimbrod story #ith t#o historical documents of differing provenance and authority; the *Ei4$or+ boo$ of that shtetl, and 8aul ,ilberg2s The .estruction of the Euro ean *e#s C=?H=D Ei4$or boo$s, #hich commemorate and memoriali4e individual communities destroyed in the ,olocaust, are usually #ritten by surviving former residents Published in %srael, in the languages of ,ebre# and Eiddish, they are sub(ect to digiti4ation and translation pro(ects #hich ma$e them available both for individuals tracing personal genealogy and for more general educational and consciousness.raising purposes !he Ei4$or 6oo$ Pro(ect at ### (e#ishgen orgIyi4$or enables place name searches #hich call up digiti4ed versions of the boo$s themselves and supplementary geographical and historical information %n Everything is Illuminated, /oer refers to his shtetl both as !rachimbrod, the name its residents use, and Sofio#$a, the official name given by local authorities - search for these names on the Ei4$or database produces the same result; a boo$ published in =?88 as Ha@ilan ve@shoreshavL sefer -orot T66L /ofio#-a@Ignato#-a, or The tree and the roots: the history of T? L? M&ofyov-a and Ignatov-aN Several authors are listed, the first being Ea$ov @ainer 5ean#hile, the database confirms !rachimbrod as one of the many names given to this settlement over the centuries !his suggests that /oer2s real. life grandfather #as from this place, or that /oer pic$ed up the name else#here, possibly $no#ing that it #as a real community %n the novel, 7onathan gives precise

=HH geographical co.ordinates for !rachimbrod; it *restFsG t#enty.three $ilometers southeast of 0vov, four north of Sol$i, and straddlFesG the Polish.U$rainian border li$e a t#ig alighted on a fence+ C<0.=D !his differs significantly from the location given in the Ei4$or database, #hich places it much farther north, in the area near 0uts2$ !hough the difference is minor in terms of historical significance K both locations are #ithin the region that has changed hands bet#een Poland and U$raine at various times over the last t#o hundred years, and #hich #as comprehensively decimated by the Ba4i mobile $illing units K it remains curious that /oer chose to give a precise, but apparently deliberately #rong, geographical siting for his shtetl C%t should be noted, ho#ever, that neither siting corresponds to a current settlementA (ust as /oer2s characters find only an empty field, there is no Sofio#$a or !rachimbrod on modern maps, testament to the *success+ of the Ba4i operation D -nother *factual+ discrepancy is the date of the shtetl2s founding, given by /oer as =>?=A the Ei4$or account suggests =82> at the earliest %t is not $no#n #hether /oer used the Ei4$or boo$ as a source Bevertheless, perhaps these geographical and temporal discrepancies are intended to distance the novel from any *real+ history of !rachimbrod, a subtle shift of place and time that parallels the symbolic and stylistic modal shifts imposed by the author !o be sure, the historical accuracy of the Ei4$or account is itself "uestionable, not least because of its Oionist bias and understandable desire to emphasi4e the positive side of the 7e#ish character %ndeed, /oer2s shtetl story and the Ei4$or account can be read as representing competing, and e"ually tendentious, claims about the nature of *7e#ishness+ /oer2s !rachimbroders are eccentric, superstitious, sexually incontinent and obsessed #ith memory and tradition !his may be seen, for example, in their obsession #ith *6rod+, the mysterious young girl 7onathan claims as his ancestor; 6y her t#elfth birthday, my great.great.great.great.great.grandmother had received at least one proposal of marriage from every citi4en of !rachimbrod; from men #ho already had #ives, from bro$en old men #ho argued on stoops about things that might or might not have happened decades before, from boys #ithout armpit hair, from #omen #ith armpit hair, and from the deceased philosopher Pinchas !, #ho, in his only notable paper, *!o the Dust; /rom 5an Eou 1ame and to 5an Eou Shall 8eturn,+ argued it #ould be possible, in theory, for life and art to be reversed C?0D

=H> %n contrast, the Ei4$or account praises the 7e#s of this area for their *national faithfulness, love of the people, love of family, good friendship, morality and humanity, enthusiastic popularity, 7e#ish charm and humane emphasis on a life of spiritual nobility, honesty and modesty+ C%%%D /oer2s shtetl appears as a cohesive, autonomous community, untouched by the outside #orld until the arrival of the 3erman army in =?:=, #hile the Ei4$or boo$ portrays a helpless group of individuals shunted from place to place as successive edicts from the 8ussian authorities constantly endanger and disrupt their lives 'hile /oer2s approach serves in its #ay to praise the 7e#ish #ay of life by emphasising its unsuspecting innocence K heightening the rhetorical effect of the community2s eventual destruction K the Ei4$or authors2 stress on enforced assimilation, compulsory military service and enforced agriculturali4ation, all leading to a perpetual struggle to survive, ma$es the generational and community continuity central to /oer2s vision appear highly improbable Lne #ay that /oer2s assertion of continuity is expressed is through the fictional community2s founding legend, #hich is invo$ed repeatedly over the centuries; %t #as 5arch =8, =>?=, #hen !rachim 62s double.axle #agon either did or did not pin him against the bottom of the 6rod 8iver !he young ' t#ins #ere the first to see the curious flotsam rising to the surface; #andering sna$es of #hite string, a crushed.velvet glove #ith outstretched fingers, barren spools, schmoot4y pince.ne4, rasp. and boysenberries, feces, frill#or$, the shards of a shattered atomi4er, the bleeding red.in$ script of a resolution; I #ill???I #ill??? C8D !his myth is dismissed by the Ei4$or boo$, #hich gives a more prosaic account of the establishment of the shtetl; F G a number of 7e#s from the ad(oining villages got together and bought from a certain s"uire #hose name #as !ruchen a parcel of land covered #ith forests and a s#amp #hich #as $no#n by the name of the 6rod Cs#amp in 8ussianD of !ruchen and in Eiddish Jtruchenbrod2 and so the place #as called by the people until the bitter end K the holocaust CLne shouldnat ta$e seriously the story of that a peasant by the name of !ruchen #as dro#ned there in the s#amp, and the place #as called by his name and accident, one cannot accept that 7e#s during the course of generations #ould call the place #here they lived by a name based on such a banal storyD Cbb@%D

=H8 Such non.acceptance signifies the determination of the Ei4$or authors to portray the 7e#s of !rachimbrod as strong, #ilful and for#ard.loo$ing, in contrast to /oer2s *banal+, #himsical, myth.obsessed innocents !his innocence becomes tragic in /oer2s description of the reaction of the !rachimbroders to the arrival of the 3ermans in =?:= %n this part of the story, there is a nine.month gap bet#een hearing the first bombs nearby and the Ba4is2 destruction of the shtetl itself 'hy did they not attempt to flee to safety) 7onathan #rites; !rachimbrod itself #as overcome by a strange inertness !he citi4enry F G no# sat on their hands -ctivity #as replaced #ith thought 5emory Everything reminded everyone of something, #hich seemed #insome at first K #hen early birthdays could be recalled by the smell of an extinguished match, or the feeling of one2s first $iss by s#eat in the palm K but "uic$ly became devitali4ing 5emory begat memory begat memory @illagers became embodiments of that legend they had been told so many times, of mad Sofio#$a, s#addled in #hite string, using memory to remember memory, bound in an order of remembrance, struggling in vain to remember a beginning or end C2<8D Echoing 7ne Hundred ;ears of &olitude, in #hich the residents of 5acondo #allo# in nostalgia #hile the civil #ar approaches, this passage ta$es the familiar trope of 7e#ish obsession #ith memory and turns it into an obstacle to survival Eet /oer2s narrator is "uic$ to universali4e this experience; *!hey #aited to die, and #e cannot blame them, because #e #ould do the same, and #e do do the same+ C2H2, emphasis in originalD -nother #riter #ho has addressed the "uestion of 7e#ish reaction to the impending catastrophe is ,olocaust historian 8aul ,ilberg %n The .estruction of the Euro ean *e#s C=?H=D, ,ilberg argues that their response to the Ba4i threat #as a *disaster+ C2:D, and insists upon *the role of the 7e#s in their o#n destruction+ C=29D /or ,ilberg, 7e#s over the centuries had learned to deal #ith persecution through alleviation, compliance, evasion and paralysis, only very rarely displaying resistance or aggression 5ore specifically, in relation to the mobile $illing operations in the region #here /oer2s novel is set, ,ilberg advances further reasons for this passivity 8ecent history had taught the 7e#s of this area to expect better treatment from 3ermans than from 8ussiansA at the end of 'orld 'ar % *the 3ermans had come as "uasi.liberators+ C=29D -lso, o#ing to censorship of the 8ussian media, *FtGhe 7e#s of 8ussia #ere ignorant of

=H? the fate that had overta$en the 7e#s in Ba4i Europe+ C=2:D !he result, according to ,ilberg, #as not only a lac$ of resistance but also no attempt to flee; %t is a fact, no# confirmed by many documents, that the 7e#s made an attempt to live #ith ,itler %n many cases they failed to escape #hile there #as still time and, more often still, they failed to step out of the #ay #hen the $illers #ere already upon them !here are moments of impending disaster #hen almost any conceivable action #ill only ma$e suffering #orse or bring final agonies closer %n such situations the victims may lapse into paralysis !he reaction is barely overt, but in =?:= a 3erman observer noted the symptomatic fidgeting of the 7e#ish community in 3alicia as it a#aited death, bet#een shoc$s of $illing operations, in *nervous despair + C22.9D */idgeting+ and *nervous despair+ brought on by multiple historical, psychological and practical factors are transformed, in /oer2s story, into a vision of a community consumed #ith Cand indeed *paralysed+ byD remembrance !o be sure, the outcome is the same; the systematic destruction of entire communities as part of a #ider genocidal plan 6ut #hat exactly is the relation bet#een the differing accounts by ,ilberg and /oer of the same historical moment) ,o# can #e understand the categories of history and fiction that are at play here) -nd #hat are the ethical issues attendant on the transformation of controversial historical *fact+ into fiction) Lne #riter #ho has explored these "uestions is the /rench hermeneutic philosopher Paul 8icoeur, #hose Time and $arrative C=?8<D has been called *the central contemporary study of historical fiction+ C5iddleton and 'oods H8D %n his chapter on *!he %nter#eaving of ,istory and /iction,+ 8icoeur begins by arguing that it is only through empathic imagination that the #riter is able to represent the Lther !his empathy consists of an act of *seeing as + or *providing oneself a figure of + C=8=D !hus the #riter2s imagination includes an *ocular dimension+ C=8<D #hich expresses itself in narrative through figurative language 5ean#hile, the reader enters into a *pact+ #ith the author, suspending disbelief and entering the *realm of illusion+ /or 8icoeur, this *fiction.effect+ C=8HD is crucial to historical #riting about horrific events such as the ,olocaust /iction2s *controlled illusion+ provides a balance bet#een the *illusion of presence+ and *critical distance,+ a balance #hich prevents the *individuation+ produced by horrible events being experienced by the reader as mere *blind feeling+ C=88D %nstead, the narrator shoulders some of the burden, through the

=>0 ocular dimension; */iction gives eyes to the horrified narrator Eyes to see and to #eep+ C=88D !his formulation appears to imply a truth claim; that the *eyes+ are *seeing+ the past event as it really #as 8icoeur2s defence of this claim lies in his idea of ho# fiction #or$s /ictional narrative attains a *"uasi.past+ that is *"uasi.historical+ C=?0D in that the events described are past facts for the narrator !his produces a *Jpastli$e2 note+ of verisimilitude in the sense of #hat *might have been+ C=?=D 5oreover, this effect #or$s as an ethical constraint on the novelist, e"uivalent to the historian2s debt to the dead /iction is *internally bound by its obligation to its "uasi. past+ C=?2D !his defence initially appears strong, especially #hen considered alongside my theory of narrative empathy developed in the present study, a simultaneous gesture of proximity and distance that echoes 8icoeur2s *controlled illusion+ ,o#ever, in these terms, 8icoeur2s analysis #ould appear to render all fictional narration empathic %n this reading, the *eyes+ of the narrator provide both proximity Cthe *illusion of presence+D and critical distance simultaneously !his *ocular dimension+ provides an inherent layer of separation that reinforces the $no#ledge of the other as other, #hile combining #ith the processes of *individuation+ and *illusion+ as part of an apparently universal fictional tra(ectory !a$en together #ith its alleged *obligation to its "uasi. past,+ fictional narrative emerges in 8icoeur2s account as an ideal empathic medium in #hich to render horrific events such as the ,olocaust ,o#ever, 8icoeur2s schema is too limited to encompass a novel li$e Everything is Illuminated 8icoeur2s theory places the narrator, rather than the author, at the centre of the action 6oth author and reader *imagine+ the event through the *eyes+ of the narrator !he author relies on this layer of separation to ensure that he or she is positioned to#ards the event in an ethically responsible manner, #hile the reader enters into a *pact+ #ith the author and thereby implicitly trusts the narrator to tell the truth 6ut it is clear that any narrative that deviates from standard past.tense realism and consistency of narration #ill problemati4e such a schema %n Everything is Illuminated, #e no longer have a straightfor#ard case of a narrator #ho is trusted by the reader to do the *seeing+ for her /oer2s novel challenges 8icoeur2s thesis both through its self. reflexive foregrounding of the problematics of #riting and the presence of the dual authorial persona !he *pact+ bet#een author and reader that for 8icoeur is embodied

=>= by the narrator is deliberately undermined in this novelA the *illusion+ is bro$en -s a result, any sense of an *obligation to FtheG "uasi.past+ that guarantees the ethical standpoint of the author or narrator is similarly fractured !his latter problem is crucial to /oer2s novel, #hich as #e have seen dares to address such contested themes as the 7e#ish character and the ,olocaust itself through a combination of farce and tragedy %f 8icoeur2s theory of historical fiction fails to account for /oer2s strategy, #hat other ethical (ustification might there be for his fictional treatment of the ,olocaust) Lne explanation might be found through an investigation of the personal investment of the author in his text /oer, by using his o#n name as the protagonist, has in a sense forced himself into the hermeneutic structure of his novel -s$ed in an intervie# about the relationship bet#een his real.life (ourney to U$raine and the subse"uent #riting of Everything is Illuminated, the author responded; J!here #asn2t an -lex F G !here #asn2t a grandfather, there #asn2t a dog, there #asn2t a #oman % found #ho resembled the #oman in the boo$ K but % did go, and % (ust found K nothing -t all %t #asn2t li$e a literary, interesting $ind of nothing, an inspiring, or a beautiful nothing, it #as really li$e; nothing %t2s not li$e anything else %2ve ever experienced in my life %n a certain sense the boo$ #asn2t an act of creation so much as it #as an act of replacement % encountered a hole K and it #as li$e the hole that % found #as in myself, and one that % #anted to try to fill up 2 C'agner =:D !his opposition bet#een *creation+ and *replacement+ is crucial Earlier % suggested that /oer2s use of his post.postmemory necessitates, by its very distance from the past, #hat ,irsch calls an *imaginative investment and creation+ Does /oer2s statement deny this element) %n saying that *the boo$ #asn2t an act of creation,+ /oer is not of course disavo#ing its fictional status Bevertheless, the statement may imply that there2s a $ind of truth he2s searching for beyond fiction, both about his lost ancestors and about the losses of the ,olocaust in general !he response to such implicit truth claims has been strongly influenced in recent years by the 'il$omirs$i affair Cdescribed in detail in 1hapter 9 of the present studyD 6runo D[sse$$er, posing as *6in(amin 'il$omirs$i+, claimed to have been in concentration camps as a child, but investigations by Daniel 3an4fried and others have since proved that he spent the #ar safe in S#it4erland #ith a succession of foster families -s Stefan

=>2 5aechler has suggested, D[sse$$er appears to have re laced his genuine childhood trauma of adoption #ith ,olocaust *memories+ that he has appropriated from others, and #hich he apparently believes on some level to be his o#n C2H8.>9D D[sse$$erI'il$omirs$i thus claims a past that is not his 1ould /oer be accused of ma$ing a comparable claim) !hough his grandfather really #as a ,olocaust survivor #ith a European ancestral history, /oer, born t#o generations later in a different continent, has no direct personal connection to the trauma of the ,olocaust except by an act of imaginative identification or creation #hich he nevertheless disavo#s 1learly, /oer2s post.postmemory has a different status to a claim to directly recall the past, but by apparently denying his creative act /oer threatens to stray into problematic territory of identification #ith a past in #hich he too$ no part ,o#ever, by calling his novel an *act of replacement+ rather than an *act of creation+ /oer hints at the #ay Everything is Illuminated self.reflexively ac-no#ledges such problems of truth and representation 1hambers Dictionary defines re lace as *to put bac$A to provide a substitute forA to ta$e the place ofA to supplant+ 8eplacement therefore means Cat leastD t#o connected things; the act of putting something bac$ #here it once #as, and the act of su+stituting one thing or person for another 'e could say that /oer2s novel aims to re@ lace the absent !rachimbrod #ith an imagined version, to put something bac$ that has been ta$en a#ay Lr #e could say that the novel ac$no#ledges the permanent absence of the original !rachimbrod Cand its destroyed #ritingsD and provides a su+stitute for it Cin the form of ne# #ritingD /oer in this sense could be said to attempt to substitute contentIpresence for emptinessIabsence -s 7onathan2s grandfather Safran says of his 3ypsy lover2s tall tales, *he $ne# that the origin of a story is al#ays an absence, and he #anted her to live among presences+ C290D /oer2s gesture may be better understood in the light of Derrida2s insight that presence is al#ays deferred in an infinite chain of *supplements+ !hrough his deconstruction of 8ousseau, Derrida noted that su replacement or substitute; *F lement means not (ust an addition, but also a G the supplement supplements %t adds only to replace

%t intervenes or insinuates itself in@the@ lace@ofA if it fills, it is as if one fills a void+ C=:<, emphasis in originalD !his *void+ may correspond to the *hole+ /oer found that he #anted to *fill up+ 6ut as Derrida argues, this is an impossible tas$ !o attempt it

=>9 reveals *an infinite chain, ineluctably multiplying the supplementary mediations that produce the sense of the very thing they defer; the mirage of the thing itself, of immediate presence, of originary perception+ C=<>D Everything is Illuminated ac$no#ledges this impossibility through its dual persona structure /oer replaces Cor supplementsD himself #ith *7onathan+ Chis replacement or supplementD, #hose narrative voice is itself replaced CsupplementedD by that of *-lex+ !he novel may no# be seen to be a+out the inevitable absence at the heart of any attempt to recapture the past %ts title is heavily ironicA very little of substance is *illuminated+, only abstract ideas of personal gro#th, traumatic memory, and so on !he site of !rachimbrod is an empty fieldA -ugustine cannot be found !hrough its narrative structure, and its multiple representations #ithin representations, Everything is Illuminated ac$no#ledges that, as a text, it can only refer to itself and its chain of replacements, never to real people or events from the past %t also mournfully sho#s the impossibility of ever $no#ing one2s ancestors, the abyss at the heart of any such attempt at transgenerational identification -s Derrida #rites; *'e are dispossessed of the longed.for presence in the gesture of language by #hich #e attempt to sei4e it+ C=:=D !his then is the third.generation aesthetic of post.postmemory, a self.reflexive dialogue #ith the self, history, and the idea of authorship itself, that nevertheless achieves a degree of empathy by combining these distancing elements #ith the presence of the author through a dual narrative persona %n this process, /oer avoids over.identification through the dramati4ation of its very impossibility, as part of a structure that embeds #ithin itself the distance bet#een self and other !a$en together, these elements combine to move beyond the limits of historical fiction as 8icoeur describes it, enabling a relationship bet#een narrative and the past #hich might be described as *transgenerational empathy+

=>: Conclusion: the future of transgenerational empathy %n this study, % have suggested that some approaches to #riting contemporary ,olocaust narratives are more appropriate than others 1ertain #riters, exemplified in this study by *6in(amin 'il$omirs$i+ and -nne 5ichaels, seem merely to identify #ith rather than empathi4e #ith the past Lthers, ho#ever, respond to the ethical and epistemological challenges raised by the sub(ect matter by adopting narrative strategies that correspond to an extent #ith 0a1aprian empathy, #hich % have defined as a simultaneous gesture of proximity and distance ' 3 Sebald, for example, transcends the dangers of identification through #hat % have called his *empathic narrative persona+, a figure one generation removed from the ,olocaust #ho nevertheless engages in acts of personal connection to its victims 0i$e#ise, 7onathan Safran /oer2s *post.postmemory+ finds expression through #hat % have named his *dual persona+, enabling /oer, in Everything is Illuminated, to achieve an empathic relation to the past, despite his even greater generational and geographical distance from the event !he stance of #riters such as Sebald and /oer may be termed *transgenerational empathy+ to account for the #ay their response to traumatic events is mediated by generational distance % have suggested that this dynamic occurs in the hermeneutic space opened up by 3adamer2s *fusion of hori4ons+, #hereby historical understanding is achieved by expanding one2s limited purvie# #ithout leaving it behind, thereby, in 3adamer2s #ords, *rising to a higher universality that overcomes not only our o#n particularity but also that of the other+ C90<D ,o#ever, this tentative theory of transgenerational empathy is as yet far from complete % #ould li$e to suggest t#o areas of future in"uiry that might help realise its potential; #hat could be termed its temporal dimension, and the $inds of narrative personae found in the #or$ of other #riters Lne productive example might be Philip 8oth %n a long and varied career, 8oth has often alluded the ,olocaust, #hether to satiri4e its use by 7e#ish.-mericans for their o#n ends K as in The (host )riter C=?>?D K or to sho# ho# it pervades the psyche of apparently unaffected -merican 7e#s K as #hen the narrator2s dying mother #rites the #ord *,olocaust+ #hen as$ed for her name in The Anatomy Lesson C=?89D -nother 8oth novel, 7 eration &hyloc- C=??9D, deals #ith the legacy of the ,olocaust in =?80s %srael by incorporating the trial of 7ohn Dem(an(u$ Cthe so. called *%van the !errible+ of !reblin$aD and the theory of *Diasporism+, #hich argues

=>< that %sraeli 7e#s should re.populate the European *homelands+ from #hence they came Bot#ithstanding this rare foray abroad, #hich is any case narrated from a visitor2s vie#point, 8oth2s American perspective is al#ays foregrounded in his novels 6ut as 5ichael 8othberg argues, it is less the ,olocaust and its impact on -merica that obsesses 8oth than the unbridgeable distance bet#een the ,olocaust and -merican life K and the inauthenticity of most attempts to lessen that distance Such an observation does not mean that 8oth minimi4es or relativi4es the significance of the ,olocaust !o the contrary, he has been, as 5ilo#it4 suggests, one of the earliest and most articulate #riters to address the genocide2s devastating singularity 6ut its singularity is precisely not -merican !o use a term inspired by 8oth, the ,olocaust is something li$e the *counter.history+ of -merican life Emphasising the ,olocaust2s distance rather than its over#helming proximity leads to a formulation of the central paradox of 8oth2s "uite original perspective on the Shoah; the greater the significance accorded to the ,olocaust as an event of modern history, the more distant a role it plays in the lives of -merican 7e#s C<9D 8othberg goes on to cite several places #here 8oth emphasi4es the *distance bet#een 7e#ish.-merican security and European tragedy+ CH2D !his insistence on 8oth2s use of distance at the expense of proximity #ould appear to preclude the #riter from empathy in narrative as % have defined it, #hich re"uires a balance of the t#o ,o#ever, 8othberg2s argument leaves out the personal connection 8oth demonstrates through his use of personae Lf the three boo$s that have the ,olocaust as a central theme K The (host )riter, 7 eration &hyloc- and The Plot Against America C200:D K t#o are narrated by a character named *Philip 8oth+, a figure -lan 1ooper calls the #riter2s *primal persona+ C2:9D 6y appearing *in person+ as a version of himself #ho engages both #ith 7e#ish persecution in the Ba4i era CThe Plot Against AmericaD and the continuing reverberations of the ,olocaust for contemporary %sraeli politics C7 eration &hyloc-D, 8oth builds in a crucial dimension of proximity through personal connection *Philip 8oth+ is the narrator of The Facts: A $ovelist6s Auto+iogra hy C=?88D, .ece tion C=??0D, Patrimony: A True &tory C=??=D, 7 eration &hyloc-, and The Plot Against America 0i$e another of 8oth2s alter.egos, *Bathan Ouc$erman+, this figure has close biographical connections to its author but enough differences to preclude any assumption of direct correspondence %n this respect he resembles Sebald2s persona ,o#ever, unli$e Sebald Cand /oerD, 8oth #as alive during 'orld 'ar %% 6orn in =?99,

=>H he #as raised in Be#ar$, Be# 7ersey among assimilated 7e#ish immigrants !his adds an extra dimension that enables him, in The Plot Against America, to insert elements from his o#n childhood into the history of that time 'here Sebald tal$s to survivors, and /oer recreates his lost ancestors, 8oth in this novel dra#s on his o#n memories in order to imagine #hat 7e#ish persecution by a Ba4i.inspired -merican administration #ould have been li$e %n this subtle ta$e on the *#hat.if)+ historical novel, 8oosevelt loses the election in =?:0 to a 8epublican party led by the aviation hero 1harles 0indbergh, #hose non. interventionist platform later extends to a pact #ith ,itler and insidious policies of forced relocation and assimilation against the 7e#ish population of the United States !hese events are seen through the lives of the 8oths of Be#ar$ K young Philip, his parents, brother and extended family K #ho as assimilated -merican 7e#s are perfectly placed to be torn apart by conflicting loyalties of race and nation !hus the build.up of tension, culminating in riots and pogroms before 8oosevelt returns and -merica (oins the #ar, is depicted simultaneously in the political and domestic spheres %n the context of the present study, 8oth2s placing of a version of himself into a reimagined history of -merica, in #hich the 7e#ish population is persecuted in #ays that cannot help be compared to =?90s 3ermany, might be construed as an inappropriate identification #ith the fate of the European 7e#s #ith #hom he has al#ays previously asserted his difference -s 8othberg says, *it is almost as if the 7e#s of Be#ar$ are the #retched of 6elsen+ CH:D 6ut % #ould suggest that 8oth2s stance is empathic not identificatory, since his approach to the ,olocaust combines distance, through geographical displacement and factual distortion, #ith deep personal connection, based on semi. fictionali4ed yet direct memories of the past Cin contrast to the post. and post. postmemories of Sebald and /oerD %ndeed, this more literal connection #ith the past leads to 8oth2s characteristic double. voicedness, in #hich the adult loo$s bac$ on the experiences of the child, giving a perfectly integrated dual perspective that combines nostalgia #ith fear, experience #ith innocence, distance #ith proximity 5oreover, 8oth2s dual perspective suggests ho# the empathic dialectic bet#een distance and proximity could be figured more closely in terms of the temporal dimension 1learly, time does not al#ays #or$ in a logical and linear fashion %t has been many decades since the ,olocaust yet it sometimes feels

=>> very close -s discussed in 1hapter =, trauma theory #ould suggest that time is transcended by repetitious and dissociated memories, though this relies on a problematic vie# of traumatic memories being unmediated by sub(ectivity Bevertheless, the interval bet#een traumatic event and its representation is a sub(ect of #ide debate 'as 200H *too soon+ after the attac$s on the 'orld !rade 1enter in 200= to release the film :nited 45) %s there an optimum lapse of time that #ould enable empathic representations of traumatic events) 1ould a narrative #ritten no# about the English 1ivil 'ar achieve the same po#erful combination of proximity and distance as Sebald2s explorations of exile and loss or /oer2s depiction of the doomed search for the past) %f not, #hat level of personal memory and connection is necessary) ,o# many *post.+s may be prefixed to memory before it ceases to be #orthy of the name) %n the case of the ,olocaust, the ans#er to these "uestions #ill only become apparent #ith time

=>8 Wor!s Cited -braham, Bicholas, and 5aria !oro$ The )olf !an6s !agic )ord: A Cry tonomy =?>H !rans Bicholas 8and !heory and ,istory of 0iterature 5inneapolis; U of 5innesota P, =?8H -dorno, !heodor ' *1ultural 1riticism and Society + !rans Samuel 'eber and Shierry 'eber Prisms =?<= 1ambridge, 5-; 5%! Press, =?8= =>.9: ... *5editations on 5etaphysics + !rans E 6 -shton $egative .ialectics =?HH 0ondon; 8outledge, =?>9 9H=.< -liaga.6uchenau, -na.%sabel *J- !ime ,e 1ould Bot 6ear to Say -ny 5ore -bout2; Presence and -bsence of the Barrator in ' 3 Sebald2s The Emigrants + )? (? &e+ald: History, !emory, Trauma Ed Scott D Denham and 5ar$ 5c1ulloh %nterdisciplinary 3erman 1ultural Studies 6erlin; 'alter de 3ruyter, 200H =:=.<< -merican Psychiatric -ssociation .iagnostic and &tatistical !anual of !ental .isorders 9rd ed 'ashington, D1; -merican Psychiatric -ssociation, =?80 ... .iagnostic and &tatistical !anual of !ental .isorders :th ed !ext 8evision 'ashington, D1; -merican Psychiatric -ssociation, 2000 -mQry, 7ean At the !ind6s Limits: Contem lations +y a &urvivor on Ausch#itz and its %ealities =?HH !rans Sidney 8osenfeld and Stella D 8osenfeld 6loomington, %B; %ndiana UP, =?80 -mis, 5artin !oney: A &uicide $ote 0ondon; 1ape, =?8: ... Time6s Arro# or The $ature of the 7ffence 0ondon; 1ape, =??= -natolii, - "a+i ;ar: A .ocument in the Form of a $ovel !rans 7acob 3urals$y 0ondon; 5ac3ibbon and See, =?H> -nderson, 5ar$ 5 *!he Edge of Dar$ness; Ln ' 3 Sebald + 7cto+er =0H C2009D; =02.2= -ndre#s, 0ucilla $o Time for %omance: An Auto+iogra hical Account of a Fe# !oments in "ritish and Personal History 0ondon; 1orgi, =?>> -ngier, 1arole *Sins of the fatherA boo$s + & ectator 2? Sept 200=; 9H.> -ppelfeld, -haron "adenheim 3454 !rans Dalya 6ilu 6oston; D 8 3odine, =?80 -rendt, ,annah Eichmann in *erusalem =?H9 8evised and enlarged ed 0ondon; Penguin, =??: -tlas, 7ames *' 3 Sebald; - Profile + Paris %evie# =<= C=???D; 2>8.?<

=>? 6aer, Ulrich & ectral Evidence: The Photogra hy of Trauma 1ambridge, 5-; 5%! Press, 2002 6anner, 3illian Holocaust Literature: &chulz, Levi, & iegelman and the !emory of the 7ffence Par$es.'iener Series on 7e#ish Studies Eds David 1esarani and !ony Sushner 0ondon; @allentine 5itchell, 2000 6ar$er, Pat The Eye in the .oor 0ondon; @i$ing, =??9 ... The (host %oad 0ondon; @i$ing, =??< ... %egeneration 0ondon; @i$ing, =??= 6arthes, 8oland Camera Lucida !rans 8ichard ,o#ard 0ondon; 1ape, =?82 6artov, Lmer *3ermany as @ictim + $e# (erman CritiBue: An Interdisci linary *ournal of (erman &tudies 80 C2000D; 2?.:0 6asant, S Puri, Paul 7 0a$ing, and %an , !reasade Te,t+oo- of Psychiatry 2nd ed Edinburgh; Elsevier, 2002 6auman, Oygmunt !odernity and the Holocaust =?8? %thaca, BE; 1ornell UP, 2000 6ehlman, 0ee *!he Escapist; /antasy, /ol$lore and the Pleasures of the 1omic 6oo$ in 8ecent 7e#ish -merican ,olocaust /iction + &hofar: An Interdisci linary *ournal of *e#ish &tudies 22 9 C200:D; <H.>= 6en(amin, 'alter Illuminations !rans ,arry Oohn Ed ,annah -rendt 0ondon; Pimlico, =??? 6ernard.Donals, 5ichael *J6lot out the Bame of -male$2; 5emory and /orgetting in the /ragments 1ontroversy + *ournal of the !id#est !odern Language Association 99 9.9: = C2000.=D; =22.9H 6ernard.Donals, 5ichael, and 8ichard 3le(4er "et#een )itness and Testimony: The Holocaust and the Limits of %e resentation -lbany, BE; State University of Be# Eor$ Press, 200= 6ernstein, 5ichael -ndrQ Foregone Conclusions: Against A ocaly tic History 6er$eley, 1-; U of 1alifornia P, =??: 6igsby, 1hristopher *%n 1onversation #ith ' 3 Sebald + )riters in Conversation @ol 2 Bor#ich; -rthur 5iller 1entre for -merican Studies, 200= =9?.H< ... %emem+ering and Imagining the Holocaust: The Chain of !emory 1ambridge; 1ambridge UP, 200H 6lac$ler, Deane %eading )? (? &e+ald: Adventure and .iso+edience Studies in 3erman 0iterature, 0inguistics, and 1ulture Be# Eor$; 1amden ,ouse, 200> 6ooth, 'ayne 1 The %hetoric of Fiction 1hicago; U of 1hicago P, =?H=

=80 6our$e, 7oanna An Intimate History of =illing 2nd ed 0ondon; 3ranta, 2000 6ur$e, Edmund A Philoso hical EnBuiry into the 7rigin of 7ur Ideas of the &u+lime and "eautiful 0ondon; 7 Dodsley, =><> 1aruth, 1athy, ed and introds Trauma: E, lorations in !emory 6altimore; 7ohns ,op$ins UP, =??< 1euppens, 7an *!ranscripts; -n Ethics of 8epresentation in The Emigrants + )? (? &e+ald: History, !emory, Trauma Eds Scott D Denham and 5ar$ 5c1ulloh %nterdisciplinary 3erman 1ultural Studies 6erlin; 'alter de 3ruyter, 200H 2<=.H9 1hat#in, 6ruce The &onglines 0ondon; 1ape, =?8> 1ooper, -lan *%t 1an ,appen ,ere, or -ll in the /amily @alues; Surviving The Plot Against America + Phili %oth: $e# Pers ectives on an American Author Ed Dere$ Par$er 8oyal 'estport, 1onnecticut; Praeger, 200< 2:=.<9 1riglington, 5eredith *!he 1ity as a Site of 1ounter.5emory in -nne 5ichaels2s Fugitive Pieces and 5ichael Lndaat(e2s In the &-in of a Lion + Essays on Canadian )riting 8= C200:D; =2?.<= Darville, ,elen The Hand that &igned the Pa er =??: 9rd ed St 0eonards, BS', -ustralia; -llen and Un#in, =??< De0illo, Don )hite $oise Be# Eor$; @i$ing, =?8< Derrida, 7ac"ues * !hat Dangerous Supplement + 7f (rammatology !rans 3ayatri 1ha$ravorty Spiva$ 6altimore; 7ohns ,op$ins UP, =?>H =:=.H: Eaglestone, 8obert The Holocaust and the Postmodern Lxford; Lxford UP, 200: Ed$ins, 7enny Trauma and the !emory of Politics 1ambridge; 1ambridge UP, 2009 Ellis, 6ret Easton Lunar Par- Be# Eor$; Snopf, 200< Eri$son, Sai *Botes on !rauma and 1ommunity + 1aruth =89.?? Es$in, 6la$e A Life in Pieces: The !a-ing and :nma-ing of "in1amin )il-omirs-i Be# Eor$; Borton, 2002 E4rahi, Sidra DeSoven *8epresenting -usch#it4 + History and !emory > 2 C=??HD; =2=.<: /elman, Shoshana The *uridical :nconscious: Trials and Traumas in the T#entieth Century 1ambridge, 5-; ,arvard UP, 2002 /elman, Shoshana and Dori 0aub Testimony: Crises of )itnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History 0ondon; 8outledge, =??2 /in$e, Susanne *' 3 Sebald . Der /Pnfte -usge#anderte + )? (? &e+ald: Portr9t

=8= Ed /ran4 0o"uai Eggingen; %sele, =??> 20<.=> /in$elstein, Borman 3 The Holocaust Industry: %eflections on the E, loitation of *e#ish &uffering 0ondon; @erso, 2000 /oer, 7onathan Safran Everything Is Illuminated 2002 0ondon; Penguin, 2009 ... E,tremely Loud and Incredi+ly Close 0ondon; ,amish ,amilton, 200< /o#les, 7ohn The French Lieutenant6s )oman 0ondon; 1ape, =?H? /reud, Sigmund *-ppendix; 5emorandum on the Electrical !reatment of 'ar Beurotics + !rans 7ames Strachey The &tandard Edition of the Com lete Psychological )or-s of &igmund Freud Ed 7ames Strachey @ol b@%% C=?=>. =?D 0ondon; ,ogarth Press, =?<< 2==.=< ... *6eyond the Pleasure Principle + =?20 !rans 7ohn 8eddic$ "eyond the Pleasure Princi le and 7ther )ritings 0ondon; Penguin, 2009 ... *%ntroduction to Psycho@Analysis and the )ar $euroses + !rans 7ames Strachey The &tandard Edition of the Com lete Psychological )or-s of &igmund Freud Ed 7ames Strachey @ol b@%% C=?=>.=?D 0ondon; ,ogarth Press, =?<< 20>. =0 ... !oses and !onotheism !rans Satherine 7ones 0etch#orth, England; ,ogarth Press and the %nstitute of Psycho.-nalysis, =?9? ... *8emembering, 8epeating and 'or$ing !hrough + !rans 7ohn 8eddic$ "eyond the Pleasure Princi le and 7ther )ritings =?=: 0ondon; Penguin, 2009 9=. :2 ... *Screen 5emories + !rans 7ames Strachey The &tandard Edition of the Com lete Psychological )or-s of &igmund Freud Ed 7ames Strachey @ol %%% 0ondon; ,ogarth Press, =?<< 90=.22 /riedlMnder, Saul *,istory, 5emory and the ,istorian; /acing the Shoah + 8oth, 5 2>=.8= ... *%ntroduction + Pro+ing the Limits of %e resentation: $azism and the 0Final &olution2 Ed /riedlander 1ambridge, 5-; ,arvard UP, =??2 =.2= /uchs, -nne J.ie &chmerzenss uren .er (eschichte6? /ur Poeti- .er Erinnerung in )? (? &e+alds Prosa 'eimar; 6ohlau, 200: /urst, 0ilian 8 *J!o Serve under the 1himney2; ' 3 Sebald, J5ax /erber,2 The Emigrants C=??2D + %andom .estinations: Esca ing the Holocaust and &tarting Life Ane# Be# Eor$; Palgrave 5ac5illan, 200< >9.88 3adamer, ,ans.3eorg Truth and !ethod =?>< !rans 7oel 'einsheimer and Donald

=82 3 5arshall 2nd revised ed 0ondon; Sheed and 'ard, =??9 3an4fried, Daniel .er A+sender: %oman OPrich; 8otpun$tverlag, =?8< ... *Die 3eliehene ,olocaust.6iographie C!he 6orro#ed ,olocaust 6iographyD + .ie )elt#oche 2> -ug =??8 3arc^a 5_r"ue4, 3abriel 7ne Hundred ;ears of &olitude !rans 3regory 8abassa 0ondon; 1ape, =?>0 3elder, 5ichael, Dennis 3ath, and 8ichard 5ayon Concise 7,ford Te,t+oo- of Psychiatry Lxford; Lxford UP, =??: 3elder, 5 3 , 7uan 7 0cpe4.%bor, 7r , and Bancy 1 -ndreasen, eds $e# 7,ford Te,t+oo- of Psychiatry @ol = Lxford; Lxford UP, 2000 3enette, 3Qrard $arrative .iscourse !rans 7ane E 0e#in Lxford; 6lac$#ell, =?80 3ourevitch, Philip *!he 5emory !hief + $e# ;or-er =: 7une =??? :8.H8 3ray, 5artin For Those I Loved M5Oth Anniversary E, anded EditionN !rans -nthony 'hite 1harlottesville, @-; ,ampton 8oads, 200H 3rim#ood, 5arita *-nne 5ichaels + The Literary Encyclo edia 9 7une 200< -ccessed => -pr 2008 Thttp;II### litencyc comIphpIspeople php) recUtrueVU%DU<9H<W 3ross, -ndre# S , and 5ichael 7 ,offman *5emory, -uthority, and %dentity; ,olocaust Studies in the 0ight of the 'il$omirs$i Debate + "iogra hy 2> = C200:D; 2<.:> 3rossman, David &ee :nder: Love !rans 6etsy 8osenberg Be# Eor$; /arrar Straus 3iroux, =?8? 3unn, Peter <ernon Lee: <iolet Paget 0ondon; Lxford UP, =?H: ,ac$ing, %an %e#riting the &oul: !ulti le Personality and the &ciences of !emory Princeton, B7; Princeton UP, =??< ,abermas, 7Prgen *,istorical 1onsciousness and Post.!raditional %dentity; !he /ederal Public2s Lrientation to the 'est + The $e# Conservatism: Cultural Criticism and the Historians6 .e+ate Ed and trans Shierry 'eber Bicholsen 1ambridge; Polity, =?8? 2:?.H> ,arrington, 8alph *Ln the !rac$s of !rauma; 8ail#ay Spine 8econsidered + &ocial History of !edicine =H C2009D; 20?.29 ,arris, 8obert Fatherland =??2 0ondon; -rro#, =??9 ,arris, Stefanie *!he 8eturn of the Dead; 5emory and Photography in ' 3 Sebald2s .ie Ausge#anderten + (erman 'uarterly >: : C200=D; 9>?.?=

=89 ,artman, 3eoffrey , *%ntroduction; Dar$ness @isible + Holocaust %emem+rance: The &ha es of !emory 1ambridge, 5-; 6lac$#ell, =??: =.22 ... *Ln !raumatic Sno#ledge and 0iterary Studies + $e# Literary History 2H 9 C=??<D; <9>.H9 ... The Longest &hado#: In the Aftermath of the Holocaust =??H Be# Eor$; Palgrave 5ac5illan, 2002 ,asian, 5arouf, 7r *-uthenticity, Public 5emories, and the Problematics of Post. ,olocaust 8emembrances; - 8hetorical -nalysis of the 'il$omirs$i -ffair + 'uarterly *ournal of & eech ?= 9 C200<D; 29=.H9 ,ay#ard, 8hodri *Empathy + Lancet 9HH ?:?= C200<D; =0>= ,erman, 7udith 0e#is Trauma and %ecovery: From .omestic A+use to Political Terror 2nd ed 3lasgo#; Pandora, =??: ,ersey, 7ohn The )all Be# Eor$; Snopf, =?<0 ,ilberg, 8aul The .estruction of the Euro ean *e#s M&tudent EditionN Be# Eor$; ,olmes V 5eier, =?8< ... The Politics of !emory: The *ourney of a Holocaust Historian 1hicago; %van 8 Dee, =??H ,irsch, 5arianne Family Frames: Photogra hy, $arrative and Postmemory 1ambridge, 5-; ,arvard UP, =??> ,ope, 1hristopher &erenity House =??2 0ondon; Picador, =??9 ,uston, Bancy Fault Lines 200> 0ondon; -tlantic 6oo$s, 2008 ,utcheon, 0inda The Politics of Postmodernism Be# -ccents 2nd ed 0ondon; 8outledge, 2002 ,uyssen, -ndreas *5onument and 5emory in a Postmodern -ge + The Art of !emory: Holocaust !emorials in History Ed 7ames E Eoung 5unich; Prestel.@erlag, =??: ?.=8 ... *8e#ritings and Be# 6eginnings; ' 3 Sebald and the 0iterature on the -ir 'ar + Present Pasts: :r+an Palim sests and the Politics of !emory 1ultural 5emory in the Present Eds 5ie$e 6al and ,ent de @ries Stanford, 1-; Stanford UP, 2009 =98.<> ... T#ilight !emories: !ar-ing Time in a Culture of Amnesia Be# Eor$; 8outledge, =??< %shiguro, Sa4uo The %emains of the .ay 0ondon; /aber, =?8? 7acobson, Dan Heshel6s =ingdom 0ondon; ,amish ,amilton, =??8

=8: 7aggi, 5 *8ecovered 5emories + (uardian 22 Sept 200=, sec Saturday; H.> Sandiyoti, Dalia *JLur /oothold in 6uried 'orlds2; Place in ,olocaust 1onsciousness and -nne 5ichaels2s Fugitive Pieces + Contem orary Literature :< 2 C200:D; 900.90 Saplan, E -nn Trauma Culture: The Politics of Terror and Loss in !edia and Literature Be# 6runs#ic$, B 7 ; 8utgers UP, 200< Seen, Su4anne Em athy and the $ovel Be# Eor$; Lxford UP, 200> Seneally, !homas &chindler6s Ar- 0ondon; ,odder, =?82 Sing, Bicola *-ppendix 2; Postmodern ,olocaust /iction + Holocaust $ovelists Ed Efraim Sicher Detroit; 3ale, 200: 98>.?: ... !emory, $arrative, Identity: %emem+ering the &elf Edinburgh; Edinburgh UP, 2000 ... *Structures of -utobiographical Barrative; 0isa -ppignanesi, Dan 7acobson, ' 3 Sebald + Com arative Critical &tudies = 9 C200:D; 2H<.>> ... *J'e 1ome after2; 8emembering the ,olocaust + Literature and the Contem orary: Fictions and Theories of the Present Eds 8oger 0uc$hurst and Peter 5ar$s 0ongman Studies in !#entieth 1entury 0iterature ,arlo#; 0ongman, =??? ?:.=08 Slein, Ser#in 0ee *Ln the Emergence of !emory in ,istorical Discourse + %e resentations H? C2000D; =2>.<0 Sosins$i, 7er4y The Painted "ird 2nd ed Be# Eor$; 3rove Press, =?>H Srit4man, 0a#rence D */ore#ord; %n 8emembrance of !hings /rench + %ealms of !emory: %ethin-ing the French Past Ed Pierre Bora @ol = 9 vols Be# Eor$; 1olumbia UP, =??H ix.xiv 0a1apra, Dominic$ History and !emory after Ausch#itz %thaca, BE; 1ornell UP, =??8 ... History in Transit: E, erience, Identity, Critical Theory %thaca, BE; 1ornell UP, 200: ... %e resenting the Holocaust: History, Theory, Trauma %thaca, BE; 1ornell UP, =??: ... *8epresenting the ,olocaust; 8eflections on the ,istorians2 Debate + Pro+ing the Limits of %e resentation: $azism and the 0Final &olution2 Ed Saul /riedlMnder 1ambridge, 5-; ,arvard UP, =??2 =08.28 ... )riting History, )riting Trauma 6altimore, 5D; 7ohns ,op$ins UP, 200=

=8< 0amb, 7onathan *3ulliver and the 0ives of -nimals + Humans and 7ther Animals in Eighteenth@Century "ritish Culture: %e resentation, Hy+ridity, Ethics Ed /ran$ Palmeri -ldershot; -shgate, 200H =H?.>8 0andsberg, -lison *-merica, the ,olocaust, and the 5- 1ulture of 5emory; !o#ard a 8adical Politics of Empathy + $e# (erman CritiBue >= C=??>D; H9.8H 0ang, 6erel Act and Idea in the $azi (enocide 1hicago; U of 1hicago P, =??0 0angdon, 7ulia *%t2s a 5atter of 3ood 5anners, 5r 5cE#an + !ail on &unday =0 Dec 200H, sec /6 0:; :8 0anger, 0a#rence The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination Be# ,aven; Eale UP, =?>< ... Holocaust Testimonies: The %uins of !emory Be# ,aven; Eale UP, =??= 0an4mann, 1laude, dir &hoah Eure$a @ideo, =?8< 0appin, Elena *!he 5an #ith !#o ,eads + (ranta HH C=???D; >.H< 0aub, Dori *6earing 'itness, or the @icissitudes of 0istening + /elman and 0aub <>. >: ... *-n Event #ithout a 'itness; !ruth, !estimony and Survival + /elman and 0aub ><.?2 0ee, @ernon and 1 -nstruther.!homson "eauty and :gliness, and other studies in sychological aesthetics 0ondon; 7ohn 0ane, =?=2 0eese, Peter &hell &hoc-: Traumatic $eurosis and the "ritish &oldiers of the First )orld )ar 6asingsto$e; Palgrave 5acmillan, 2002 0evi, Beil J*Bo Sensible 1omparison2); !he Place of the ,olocaust in -ustraliaas ,istory 'ars + History and !emory =? = C200>D; =2:.<H 0evi, Primo If This is a !an and The Truce !rans Stuart 'oolf 0ondon; Penguin, =?>? ... The .ro#ned and the &aved =?88 !rans 8aymond 8osenthal 0ondon; -bacus, =?8? 0eys, 8uth Trauma: A (enealogy 1hicago; U of 1hicago P, 2000 0ipsit4, 3eorge *,istory, 5yth, and 1ounter.5emory; Barrative and Desire in Popular Bovels + Time Passages: Collective !emory and American Po ular Culture 5inneapolis; U of 5innesota P, =??0 2==.9= 0ipstadt, Deborah E .enying the Holocaust: The (ro#ing Assault on Truth and !emory Be# Eor$; Plume, =??9 0ong, 7 7 *6ernhard Schlin$2s .er <orleser and 6in(amin 'il$omirs$i2s "ruchstCc-e;

=8H 6est.Selling 8esponses to the ,olocaust + (erman@Language Literature Today: International and Po ularK Ed -rthur 'illiams et al Lxford; Peter 0ang, 2000 :?.HH ... *6oo$ 8evie#; 3erman Studies; .ie &chmerzenss uren .er (eschichte: /ur Poeti- .er Erinnerung in )? (? &e+alds Prosa?+ *ournal of Euro ean &tudies 9> = C200>D; =0=.9 ... *,istory, Barrative and Photography in ' 3 Sebald2s .ie Ausge#anderten + !odern Language %evie# ?8 = C2009D; ==>.9> ... *%ntercultural %dentities in ' 3 Sebald2s The Emigrants and Borbert 3strein2s .ie Englischen *ahre + *ournal of !ultilingual and !ulticultural .evelo ment 2< <VH C200:D; <=2.28 0ong, 7 7 , and -nne 'hitehead )? (? &e+ald: A Critical Com anion Edinburgh; Edinburgh UP, 200: 0yotard, 7ean./ranRois Heidegger and 0the 1e#s2 5inneapolis; U of 5innesota P, =??0 5aier, 1harles *- Surfeit of 5emory) 8eflections on ,istory, 5elancholy and Denial + History and !emory < 2 C=??9D; =9H.<2 5aechler, Stefan The )il-omirs-i Affair: A &tudy in "iogra hical Truth !rans 7ohn E 'oods Be# Eor$; 8andom ,ouse, 200= 5_r"ue4, 3abriel 3arc^a 7ne Hundred ;ears of &olitude !rans 3regory 8abassa 0ondon; 1ape, =?>0 5c1abe, 1olin et al *!he 5cE#an Dossier + Critical 'uarterly :? 2 C200>D; 92.H= 5c1ulloh, 5ar$ 8 *%ntroduction; !#o 0anguages, !#o -udiences; !he !andem 0iterary Leuvres of ' 3 Sebald + )? (? &e+ald: History, !emory, Trauma Eds Scott D Denham and 5ar$ 5c1ulloh %nterdisciplinary 3erman 1ultural Studies 6erlin; 'alter de 3ruyter, 200H >.20 ... *!he Stylistics of Stasis; Paradoxical Effects in ' 3 Sebald + &tyle 98 = C200:D; 98.:? 5cE#an, %an Atonement 0ondon; 1ape, 200= ... "lac- .ogs 0ondon; 1ape, =??2 5cBally, 8ichard 7 et al *Does Early Psychological %ntervention Promote 8ecovery from Posttraumatic Stress)+ Psychological &cience in the Pu+lic Interest : 2 C2009D; :<.>? 5cBally, 8ichard 7 %emem+ering Trauma 1ambridge, 5-; !he 6el$nap Press of

=8> ,arvard UP, 2009 5icale, 5ar$ S , and Paul 0erner Traumatic Pasts: History, Psychiatry, and Trauma in the !odern Age, 3FPQ@345Q 1ambridge; 1ambridge UP, 200= 5ichaels, -nne *1leopatra2s 0ove + Poetry and =no#ing: & eculative Essays and Intervie#s Ed !im 0ilburn Singston, Lntario; Nuarry Press, =??< =>>.89 ... Fugitive Pieces =??H 0ondon; 6loomsbury, =??8 ... !iner6s Pond !oronto; 5c1lelland V Stuart, =??= ... *Phantom 0imbs + Architecture Canada =??> -ccessed 9 5ar 200< Thttp;II### geocities comIannemichaelsI-rchitecture1anada htmlW ... &-in .ivers !oronto; 5c1lelland V Stuart, =??? ... The )eight of 7ranges !oronto; 5c1lelland V Stuart, =?8H 5iddleton, Peter, and !im 'oods Literatures of !emory: History, Time and & ace in Post#ar )riting 5anchester; 5anchester UP, 2000 5ilano, /red *3ulf 'ar Syndrome + International &ocial &cience %evie# >< C2000D; =H.2< 5int4, -lan *!#o 5odels in the Study of ,olocaust 0iterature + Humanity at the Limit: The Im act of Holocaust E, erience on *e#s and Christians Ed 5ichael - Signer 6loomington; %ndiana UP, 2000 :00.28 5orahg, 3ilead *%srael2s Be# 0iterature of the ,olocaust; !he 1ase of David 3rossman2s &ee :nder: Love + !odern Fiction &tudies :< 2 C=???D; :<>.>? 5orrison, !oni "eloved 0ondon; 1hatto V 'indus, =?8> Bora, Pierre *6et#een 5emory and ,istory; 0es 0ieux De 5Qmoire + %e resentations 2H C=?8?D; >.2: Bovic$, Peter The Holocaust in American Life =??? 6oston; ,oughton 5ifflin, 2000 Lr#ell, 3eorge .o#n and 7ut in Paris and London =?99 0ondon; Penguin, =?>< Luth#aite, 'illiam :nderstanding &ocial Life: The !ethod Called <erstehen =?>< 2nd ed 0e#es, East Sussex; 7ean Stroud, =?8H L4ic$, 1ynthia The &ha#l =?8? Be# Eor$; @intage, =??0 Parry, -nn *%dioms for the Unrepresentable; Post.'ar /iction and the Shoah + *ournal of Euro ean &tudies 2> : C=??>D; :=>.92 *Persona+ 7,ford English .ictionary 2nd ed =?8? Phillips, 1aryl The $ature of "lood =??> 0ondon; /aber, =??8 Pigman, 7 ' */reud and the ,istory of Empathy + International *ournal of Psychoanalysis >H 2 C=??<D; 29>.<H

=88 Pillemer, David 6 *1an the Psychology of 5emory Enrich ,istorical -nalyses of !rauma)+ History and !emory =H 2 C200:D; =:0.<: Prager, Emily Eve6s Tattoo =??2 0ondon; @intage, =??9 Proust, 5arcel R la %echerche du Tem s Perdu Paris; 3allimard, =?8>.? 8aban, 7onathan &urveillance 0ondon; Picador, 200H 8amati, -lexander And the <iolins &to ed Playing: A &tory of the (y sy Holocaust 0ondon; ,odder V Stoughton, =?8< 8ash$in, Esther Family &ecrets and the Psychoanalysis of $arrative Princeton, B7; Princeton UP, =??2 8au, Petra *6eyond punctum and studium; trauma and photography in 8achel Seiffert2s The .ar- %oom + *ournal of Euro ean &tudies 9H 9 C200HD; 2?<.92< *8eplace + Cham+ers .ictionary =??9 The %emains of the .ay Dir 7ames %vory Screenplay by 8uth Pra#er 7habvala 1olumbia, =??9 8ibbat, 1hristoph *Bomadic #ith the !ruth; ,olocaust 8epresentations in 5ichael 1habon, 7ames 5c6ride and 7onathan Safran /oer + Anglisti- und Englischunterricht HH C200<D; =??.2=8 8icoeur, Paul *!he %nter#eaving of ,istory and /iction + Time and $arrative !rans Sathleen 6lamey and David Pellauer @ol %%% 1hicago; U of 1hicago P, =?88 =80.?9 8immon.Senan, Shlomith $arrative Fiction: Contem orary Poetics 0ondon; 5ethuen, =?89 8ivers, ' , 8 *Ln the 8epression of 'ar Experience + Lancet =?: :?2> C=?=8D; =>9.> 8ohr, Susanne *!ransgressing taboos; pro(ecting the ,olocaust in 5elvin 7ules 6u$iet2s After and 7onathan Safran /oer2s Everything is Illuminated + Aesthetic transgressions: modernity, li+eralism, and the function of literature: Festschrift fCr )infried Fluc- zum SQ? (e+urtstag Eds !homas 1lavie4, et al -merican Studies ,eidelberg; UniversitMtsverlag 'inter, 200H 29?.H0 8ose, 3illian *6eginnings of the Day; /ascism and 8epresentation + !ourning "ecomes the La#: Philoso hy and %e resentation 1ambridge; 1ambridge UP, =??H :=.H2 8oth, 5ichael S , and 1harles 3 Salas, eds .istur+ing %emains: !emory, History, and Crisis in the T#entieth Century 0os -ngeles; 3etty 8esearch %nstitute,

=8? 200= 8oth, Philip .ece tion 0ondon; 1ape, =??0 ... The Facts: A $ovelist6s Auto+iogra hy Be# Eor$; /arrar, Straus V 3iroux, =?88 ... The (host )riter Be# Eor$; /arrar, Straus V 3iroux =?>? ... 7 eration &hyloc-: A Confession 0ondon; 1ape, =??9 ... Patrimony: A True &tory 0ondon; 1ape, =??= ... The Plot against America 0ondon; 1ape, 200: 8othberg, 5ichael *8oth and the ,olocaust + The Cam+ridge Com anion to Phili %oth Ed !imothy Parrish Be# Eor$; 1ambridge UP, 200> <2.H> ... Traumatic %ealism: The .emands of Holocaust %e resentation 5inneapolis; U of 5innesota P, 2000 Santner, Eric 0 *,istory 6eyond the Pleasure Principle; Some !houghts on the 8epresentation of !rauma + Pro+ing the Limits of %e resentation: $azism and the 0Final &olution2 Ed Saul /riedlMnder 1ambridge, 5-; ,arvard UP, =??2 =:9.<: Scheler, 5ax The $ature of &ym athy =?=9 !rans Peter ,eath 8are 5asterpieces of Philosophy and Science Ed ' Star$ 0ondon; 8outledge V Segan Paul, =?<: &chindler6s List Dir Steven Spielberg Screenplay by Steven Oaillian U%P, =??9 Schlant, Ernestine The Language of &ilence: )est (erman Literature and the Holocaust Be# Eor$; 8outledge, =??? Schlesinger, Philip *' 3 Sebald and the 1ondition of Exile + Theory, Culture T &ociety 2= 2 C200:D; :9.H> Schlin$, 6ernhard The %eader !rans 1arol 6ro#n 7ane#ay 0ondon; Phoenix, =??> Schmit4, ,elmut *J Lnly Signs Every#here of the -nnihilation2 . ' 3 Sebald2s Austerlitz + 7n Their 7#n Terms: The Legacy of $ational &ocialism in Post@ 344Q (erman Fiction !he Be# 3ermany in 1ontext 6irmingham; U of 6irmingham P, 200: Sch#ar4, Daniel 8 Imagining the Holocaust Be# Eor$; St 5artinas Press, =??? Sebald, ' 3 Austerlitz !rans -nthea 6ell 0ondon; ,amish ,amilton, 200= ... .ie Ausge#anderten : <ier Lange Erz9hlungen =??9 /ran$furt am 5ain; /ischer !aschenbuch, 2009 ... Cam o &anto Ed Sven 5eyer !rans -nthea 6ell 0ondon; ,amish ,amilton, 200< ... The Emigrants =??H !rans 5ichael ,ulse 0ondon; @intage, 2002

=?0 ... 7n the $atural History of .estruction !rans -nthea 6ell 0ondon; ,amish ,amilton, 2009 ... .ie %inges des &aturn /ran$furt; @ito von Eichborn @erlag, =??< ... The %ings of &aturn =??8 !rans 5ichael ,ulse 0ondon; @intage, 2002 ... &ch#indel? (efChle /ran$furt; @ito von Eichborn @erlag, =??0 ... <ertigo =??? !rans 5ichael ,ulse 0ondon; @intage, 2002 Seiffert, 8achel The .ar- %oom 0ondon; 'illiam ,einemann, 200= Selt4er, 5ar$ *'ound 1ulture; !rauma in the Pathological Public Sphere + 7cto+er 80 C=??>D; 9.2H Sicher, Efraim, ed "rea-ing Crystal: )riting and !emory after Ausch#itz Urbana; U of %llinois P, =??8 ... The Holocaust $ovel 3enres in 1ontext Be# Eor$; 8outledge, 200< ... *%ntroduction + Holocaust $ovelists Ed Sicher @ol 22? Dictionary of 0iterary 6iography Detroit; 3ale, 200: xv.xxi Silverblatt, 5ichael *- Poem of an %nvisible Sub(ect C%ntervie#D + The Emergence of !emory: Conversations #ith )? (? &e+ald 200= Ed 0ynne Sharon Sch#art4 Be# Eor$; Seven Stories Press, 200> >>.8H Silverman, Sa(a !ale &u+1ectivity at the !argins Be# Eor$; 8outledge, =??2 ... The Threshold of the <isi+le )orld Be# Eor$; 8outledge, =??H Simon, 1laude Le *ardin des Plantes Paris; dditions de 5inuit, =??> *Simulation + The 7,ford .ictionary of Philoso hy Simon 6lac$burn Lxford UP, =??H 7,ford %eference 7nline Lxford UP Exeter University -ccessed > 5ay 200> Thttp;II### oxfordreference comIvie#sIEB!8E html) subvie#U5ainVentryUt?8 e2=8HW Solec$i, Sam *5ichaels, -nne + !he Lxford 1ompanion to 1anadian 0iterature Eugene 6enson and 'illiam !oye Lxford University Press 200= Lxford 8eference Lnline Lxford University Press Exeter University -ccessed => -pril 2008 Thttp;II### oxfordreference comIvie#sIEB!8E html) subvie#U5ainVentryUt20= e=09HW Sontag, Susan *- 5ind in 5ourning; ' 3 Sebald2s !ravels in Search of Some 8emnant of the Past + TL& <0<H C2000D; 9.: Spiegelman, -rt The Com lete !aus 0ondon; Penguin, 2009 Steiner, 3eorge The Portage to &an Crist>+al of A? H 0ondon; /aber, =??= ... *Silence and the Poet + Language and &ilence: Essays 34OF@34SS 0ondon; /aber,

=?= =?8< <<.>: Steiner, 7ean./ranRois Tre+lin-a !rans ,elen 'eaver Be# Eor$; Simon and Schuster, =?HH Stur$en, 5arita Tangled !emories: The <ietnam )ar, the Aids E idemic, and the Politics of %emem+ering 6er$eley and 0os -ngeles; U of 1alifornia P, =??> Styron, 'illiam &o hie6s Choice Be# Eor$; 8andom ,ouse, =?>? Suleiman, Susan 8ubin *Problems of 5emory and /actuality in 8ecent ,olocaust 5emoirs; 'il$omirs$iI'iesel + Poetics Today 2= 9 C2000D; <:9.<? !erdiman, 8ichard Present Past: !odernity and the !emory Crisis %thaca, BE; 1ornell UP, =??9 !ighe, 1arl )riting and %es onsi+ility -bingdon, Lxon; 8outledge, 200< !odd, 8ichard *!he %ntrusive -uthor in 6ritish Postmodernist /iction; !he 1ases of -lasdair 3ray and 5artin -mis + E, loring Postmodernism: &elected Pa ers Presented at a )or-sho on Postmodernism at the UIth International Com arative Literature Congress, Paris, VE@VE August 34FO Eds 5atei 1alinescu and Dou#e /o$$ema Utrecht Publications in 3eneral and 1omparative 0iterature -msterdam; 7ohn 6en(amins, =?8> !orgovnic$, 5arianna The )ar Com le,: )orld )ar II in 7ur Time 1hicago; U of 1hicago P, 200< *!rans., refi,+ 7,ford English .ictionary 2nd ed =?8? !urner, 3ordon, and ' 3 Sebald *%ntroduction and !ranscript of an %ntervie# 3iven by 5ax Sebald C%ntervie#er; 5ichael OeemanD + )? (? &e+ald: History, !emory, Trauma Eds Scott D Denham and 5ar$ 5c1ulloh %nterdisciplinary 3erman 1ultural Studies 6erlin; 'alter de 3ruyter, 200H 2=.2? @ainer, Ea$ov et al, ed Ha@ilan ve@shoreshavL sefer -orot T66L /ofio#-a@Ignato#-a 3ivatayim, %srael; 6eit.!al.3ivataim, =?88 van -lphen, Ernst Caught +y History: Holocaust Effects in Contem orary Art, Literature, and Theory Stanford, 1-; Stanford UP, =??> van der Sol$, 6essel - , Paul 6ro#n, and Lnno van der ,art *Pierre 7anet on Post !raumatic Stress + *ournal of Traumatic &tress 2 C=?8?D; 9H<.>8 van der Sol$, 6essel - , and Lnno van der ,art *!he %ntrusive Past; !he /lexibility of 5emory and the Engraving of !rauma + 1aruth =<8.82 @arvogli, -li$i J*Under#helmed to the 5aximum2; -merican travellers in Dave Eggers2s ;ou &hall =no# 7ur <elocity and 7onathan Safran /oer2s Everything is

=?2 Illuminated + Atlantic &tudies: Literary, Cultural, and Historical Pers ectives 9 = C200HD; 89.?< *@erstehen + The 7,ford .ictionary of Philoso hy Simon 6lac$burn Lxford UP, =??H 7,ford %eference 7nline Lxford UP Exeter University -ccessed > 5ay 200> Thttp;II### oxfordreference comIvie#sIEB!8E html) subvie#U5ainVentryUt?8 e2:>HW @ice, Sue Holocaust Fiction 0ondon; 8outledge, 2000 @ol$an, @ami$ D , 3abriele -st, and 'illiam / 3reer 7r , eds The Third %eich in the :nconscious: Transgenerational Transmission and Its ConseBuences Be# Eor$; 6runner.8outledge, 2002 'agner, Erica *!he $ey to illuminating the next 8eal !hing + Times < 7une 2002, sec 2; =: 'aters, Sarah The $ight )atch 0ondon; @irago, 200H 'hite, ,ayden *!he 6urden of ,istory + Tro ics of .iscourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism =?HH 6altimore; 7ohns ,op$ins UP, =?>8 2>.<0 'hitehead, -nne Trauma Fiction Edinburgh; Edinburgh UP, 200: 'iesel, Elie $ight =?<8 !rans 5arion 'iesel Be# Eor$; ,ill and 'ang, 200H 'il$omirs$i, 6in(amin Fragments: !emories of a Childhood, 3454@34EF !rans 1arol 6ro#n 7anea#ay 0ondon; Picador, =??> 'illiams, 0inda 5 , and @ictoria 0 6anyard, eds Trauma and !emory !housand La$s, 1-; Sage, =??? 'yschogrod, Edith An Ethics of %emem+ering: History, Heterology, and the $ameless 7thers 8eligion and Postmodernism Ed 5ar$ 1 !aylor 1hicago; U of 1hicago P, =??8 Eerushalmi, Eosef ,ayim /a-hor: *e#ish History and *e#ish !emory =?82 !he Samuel and -lthea Stroum 0ectures in 7e#ish Studies Seattle; U of 'ashington P, =??H Eoung, 7ames E )riting and the Holocaust: $arrative and the ConseBuences of %e resentation 6loomington, %B; %ndiana UP, =?88 Oeitlin, /roma *Be# Soundings in ,olocaust 0iterature; - Surplus of 5emory + Catastro he and !eaning: The Holocaust and the T#entieth Century Eds 5oishe Postone and Eric Santner 1hicago; U of 1hicago P, 2009 =>9.208 XiYe$, Slavo( For They =no# $ot )hat They .o: En1oyment as a Political Factor 0ondon; @erso, =??=

=?9