Visualised Incomprehensibility of Trauma in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
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Sien Uytterschout
Abstract
In the wake of massive trauma, the purpose of literature is to constantly work against a smoothing-over of the painfully disruptive character of the event. With his latest novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer has ventured to represent the traumatic events of September 11 and to interlace them with those of the Allied firebombing of Dresden in 1945. Combining linguistic virtuosity with typo-graphical and other visual elements, Foer attempts to come as close to the disruptive nature of trauma (representation) as possible, and achieves what Ulrich Baer has described as “mock[ing] the black and white simplicity of printing paper” (Baer 2002, 2). In this contribution I argue that, contrary to what certain critics have maintained, Foer’s use of visual interludes betrays no inability on his part to adequately convey his story by means of language. Instead of treating these elements as a meagre and unconvincing surrogate for language, they should be seen as complementary to the narrative. Some-times the visualisation of trauma in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close even goes beyond what language can convey
© 2014 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelei
- Inhalt
- Editorial
- Language and the Edges of Humanity: Orang-Utans and Wild Girls in Monboddo and Peacock
- Staging Restoration England in the Post-Heritage Theatre Film: Gender and Power in Stage Beauty and The Libertine
- ‘The Gift of Seeing’ – ‘The Eyes of Faith’: Visuelle Evidenz und Übersinnliches in Julian Barnes’ Arthur & George und anderen neo-viktorianischen Detektivromanen
- Passion, Plainness, Allegory: Frank Chin, American Literary Tradition, and the Question of Style
- Visualised Incomprehensibility of Trauma in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
- Buchbesprechungen
- Bucheingänge
- Die Autoren dieses Heftes
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelei
- Inhalt
- Editorial
- Language and the Edges of Humanity: Orang-Utans and Wild Girls in Monboddo and Peacock
- Staging Restoration England in the Post-Heritage Theatre Film: Gender and Power in Stage Beauty and The Libertine
- ‘The Gift of Seeing’ – ‘The Eyes of Faith’: Visuelle Evidenz und Übersinnliches in Julian Barnes’ Arthur & George und anderen neo-viktorianischen Detektivromanen
- Passion, Plainness, Allegory: Frank Chin, American Literary Tradition, and the Question of Style
- Visualised Incomprehensibility of Trauma in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
- Buchbesprechungen
- Bucheingänge
- Die Autoren dieses Heftes
