Who will carry the word? The threshold between unspeakability and silence in the Holocaust narratives of Charlotte Delbo and Jorge Semprun

摘要

This article is an attempt to go beyond the heated debates over the aesthetics of Holocaust representation into a productive exploration of the politics of memory in the contemporary world. It also engages with current theory in the fields of memory studies, trauma, narratology and life writing, to elucidate what, in particular, the study of these disciplines may contribute to the understanding of the relationship between aesthetics, politics, loss and grief. My hope is that the treatment of memory, trauma and the simultaneity of past pain and its aftermath addressed in the following approaches to Charlotte Delbo - in her trilogy Auschwitz and After- and Jorge Semprun - in his memoir Literature or Life - will be applicable as ‘lessons’ beyond the Holocaust and towards other difficult moments in traumatic history.View full textDownload full textKeywordsHolocaust, Delbo, Semprun, memory, unspeakability, traumaRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13825571003588429