On Becoming a Non-Jewish Holocaust Writer: Yann Martel’s Beatrice and Virgil
Autor: | Rachel F. Brenner |
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Jazyk: | angličtina |
Rok vydání: | 2021 |
Předmět: |
Literature
History Psychoanalysis business.industry Holocaust Judaism 05 social sciences Tragedy Context (language use) 06 humanities and the arts 060202 literary studies lcsh:History of scholarship and learning. The humanities 050601 international relations 0506 political science memory identity The Holocaust 0602 languages and literature Humanity lcsh:AZ20-999 Jewish identity Omnipresence business MarTEL |
Zdroj: | Humanities, Vol 10, Iss 12, p 12 (2021) Humanities; Volume 10; Issue 1; Pages: 12 |
ISSN: | 2076-0787 |
Popis: | To appraise Martel’s non-Jewish perspective of Holocaust thematic, it is important to assess it in the context of the Jewish relations with the Holocaust. Even though the Jewish claim to the uniqueness of the Holocaust has been disputed since the end of the war especially in Eastern Europe, the Jewish response determined to a large extent the reception of the disaster on the global scene. On a family level, the children of survivors have identified themselves as the legitimate heirs of the unknowable experience of their parents. On a collective level, the decree of Jewish annihilation constructed a Jewish identity that imposed an obligation to keep the Holocaust memory in the consciousness of the world. Martel proposes to supersede the history of the Holocaust with a story which would downplay the Jewish filiation with the Holocaust, elicit an affiliative response to the event of the non-Jewish writer and consequently integrate it into the memory of humanity at large. However, the Holocaust theme of Beatrice and Virgil refuses to assimilate within the general memory of humanity; rather, the consciousness of the event, which pervades the post-Holocaust world, insists on its constant presence. The omnipresence of the Holocaust blurs the distinctions between the filiative (Jewish) and affiliative (non-Jewish) attitudes toward the Jewish tragedy, gripping the writer in its transcendent horror. Disregarding his ethnic or religious origins, the Holocaust takes over the writer’s personal life and determines his story. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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