Recreating a Universe of Trauma. On (Post)memorial A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz by Göran Rosenberg Cover Image

Odtworzyć świat (z) traumy. O postmemorialnej prozie Görana Rosenberga Krótki przystanek w drodze z Auschwitz
Recreating a Universe of Trauma. On (Post)memorial A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz by Göran Rosenberg

Author(s): Mateusz Florczak
Subject(s): Polish Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: trauma; memory; Shoah; space;identity;

Summary/Abstract: This article considers literary features that are characteristic of the (post)memorial prose written by members of the so-called “second generation” after Shoah: in other words, children of Holocaust Survivors, who grew up within spaces delineated by family memories that were strongly tabooed. Based on the example of the autobiographical text A Brief Stop On the Road From Auschwitz, by Göran Rosenberg, the article discusses how narration representing traumatic memories disturbs narration tied to narrative (normative) memories. Drawing on terms from trauma and memory studies, the article proposes that such novels be read as medical epicrises, each containing a range of symptoms, diagnoses, and specific therapeutic processes. This article specifically examines the so-called identity dissociation of the author/narrator, following the condition’s development over the course of the text. Simultaneously, and aided by references to urban studies terminology, the article hypothesizes a process of the reconstruction of a childhood world from a grown-up perspective.

  • Issue Year: 2/2020
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 1-14
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Polish
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