WRITING OFF HORROR - FROM SENSATION AND PERCEPTION TO REFLECTION IN JODI PICOULT’S “THE STORYTELLER”
WRITING OFF HORROR - FROM SENSATION AND PERCEPTION TO REFLECTION IN JODI PICOULT’S “THE STORYTELLER”

Summary/Abstract: The paper represents an attempt to analyse and understand the mechanisms by which a text – in this case, Jodi Picoult’s 2013 novel The Storyteller – has succeeded in capturing its readers, while discussing a topic that, for many, has become obsolete: the Holocaust. With all the TV documentaries talking about it and showing explicit pictures or footage, one would think that nothing new may be said about the subject of the Jews that were killed during the Second World War. Actually, it is quite interesting to notice that, in The Storyteller, the novelist tells the reader a (hi)story with at least one moral twist: can one forgive a killer on behalf of the victim? Is it possible to perceive life/ survival as punishment for one’s war crimes? Page by page, The Storyteller becomes a way of self-purification and reflection for the many narrators in the novel; hoping to find their own happy ending, the narrators/ characters try to understand many sensations and perceptions about the self and the world – and not all are pleasant or good. That is why, having to analyse and make sense of all those issues, the paper cannot end with a definite conclusion; instead, it suggests the possibility of accepting reflection and the gesture of writing stories as an imperfect, but viable solution to horror.

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