Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services
Rutgers University Press
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
Textual Silence
Unreadability and the Holocaust
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2017
About this book
There are thousands of books that represent the Holocaust, but can, and should, the act of reading these works convey the events of genocide to those who did not experience it? In Textual Silence, literary scholar Jessica Lang asserts that language itself is a barrier between the author and the reader in Holocaust texts—and that this barrier is not a lack of substance, but a defining characteristic of the genre.
Holocaust texts, which encompass works as diverse as memoirs, novels, poems, and diaries, are traditionally characterized by silences the authors place throughout the text, both deliberately and unconsciously. While a reader may have the desire and will to comprehend the Holocaust, the presence of “textual silence” is a force that removes the experience of genocide from the reader’s analysis and imaginative recourse. Lang defines silences as omissions that take many forms, including the use of italics and quotation marks, ellipses and blank pages in poetry, and the presence of unreliable narrators in fiction. While this limits the reader’s ability to read in any conventional sense, these silences are not flaws. They are instead a critical presence that forces readers to acknowledge how words and meaning can diverge in the face of events as unimaginable as those of the Holocaust.
Holocaust texts, which encompass works as diverse as memoirs, novels, poems, and diaries, are traditionally characterized by silences the authors place throughout the text, both deliberately and unconsciously. While a reader may have the desire and will to comprehend the Holocaust, the presence of “textual silence” is a force that removes the experience of genocide from the reader’s analysis and imaginative recourse. Lang defines silences as omissions that take many forms, including the use of italics and quotation marks, ellipses and blank pages in poetry, and the presence of unreliable narrators in fiction. While this limits the reader’s ability to read in any conventional sense, these silences are not flaws. They are instead a critical presence that forces readers to acknowledge how words and meaning can diverge in the face of events as unimaginable as those of the Holocaust.
Author / Editor information
JESSICA LANG is an associate professor of English at CUNY-Baruch College in New York, where she is the founding Newman Director of the Wasserman Jewish Studies Center.
Reviews
"A valuable and timely resource that speaks to the necessity of ethical reading in regard to Holocaust representation."
— Victoria Aarons, O.R. & Eva Mitchell Endowed Chair in Literature, Trinity University"Lang's exquisitely wrought study defines and explores the challenges of reading trauma literature, shedding light on the irony that reading does not equate to understanding."
— Alan L. Berger, Raddock Family Eminent Scholar Chair in Holocaust Studies, Florida Atlantic UniversityTopics
-
Download PDFPublicly Available
Frontmatter
i -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Contents
vii -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Introduction
1 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
1. Readability and Unreadability: A Fractured Dialogue
9 - Part I. Generational Differences in Holocaust Literature
-
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
2. Before, During, and After: Reading and the Eyewitness
35 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
3. Reading to Belong: Second-Generation and the Audience of Self
58 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
4. The Third Generation’s Holocaust: The Story of Time and Place
87 - Part II. Pushed to the Edges: The Holocaust in American Fiction
-
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
5. American Fiction and the Act of Genocide
119 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
6. Receding into the Distance: The Holocaust as Background
155 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Afterword: Reading the Fragments of Memory
175 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Acknowledgments
179 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Notes
181 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Bibliography
199 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Index
209
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
September 2, 2019
eBook ISBN:
9780813589947
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9780813589947
Keywords for this book
holocaust; literature; holocaust literature; hitler; holocaust book; genocide; auschwitz; silence; jewish studies; jewish history; represent the holocaust; representing the holocaust; langauge barrier; holocaust text; human rights; literary studies; literary criticism; jewish; world history; lit crit; comp lit; comparative lit; comparative literature; rutgers; rutgers university; rutgers university press; nonfiction; scholarship; non-fiction; non fiction; literary scholar; holocaust studies; wwii; world war ii; world war two; poetry; unreliable narrators; ellipses; historical texts; historical accounts
Audience(s) for this book
For universities and colleges of further and higher education
