Third-Generation Holocaust Representation

By Victoria Aarons, Alan L. Berger

Subjects: Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature, Holocaust, jewish (1939-1945), in literature, Literature, modern, history and criticism, 20th century, Modern Literature, Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) in literature, Memory in literature, Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) fast (OCoLC)fst00958866, Literature, modern, history and criticism, 21st century, Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.), Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), Grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, Psychic trauma, Psychic trauma in literature, History and criticism, Influence

Description: Victoria Aarons and Alan L. Berger show that Holocaust literary representation has continued to flourish—gaining increased momentum even as its perspective shifts, as a third generation adds its voice to the chorus of post-Holocaust writers. In negotiating the complex thematic imperatives and narrative conceits of the literature of these writers, this bold new work examines those structures, ironies, disjunctions, and tensions that produce a literature lamenting loss for a generation removed spatially and temporally from the extended trauma of the Holocaust. Aarons and Berger address evolving notions of “postmemory”; the intergenerational transmission of trauma; inherited memory; the psychological tensions of post-Holocaust Jewish identity; tropes of memory and the personalized narrative voice; generational dislocation and anxiety; the recurrent antagonisms of assimilation and alienation; the imaginative reconstruction of the past; and the future of Holocaust memory and representation.