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"In the Holocaust novel, silence is always a character, and the word is always its subject matter." So writes David Patterson in this profound and original study of more than thirty important writers. Contrary to existing views, he argues, the Holocaust novel is not an attempt to depict an unimaginable reality or an ineffable horror. It is, rather, an endeavor to fetch the word from silence and restore it to meaning, to resurrect the human soul, to regenerate the relation between the self and God, the self and other, the self and itself.
This book is less a critical study in the usual sense than an impassioned meditation on the deeper sources of the Holocaust novel. Among the authors examined are Elie Wiesel, Arnost Lustig, Aharon Appelfeld, Katzetnik 135633, Primo Levi, Yehuda Amichai, Piotr Rawicz, A. Anatoli, Saul Bellow, I.B. Singer, Anna Langfus, Rachmil Bryks, and Ilse Aichinger.
The Shriek of Silence is a first in several respects: the first to examine the Holocaust novels in their original languages, the first to articulate a theoretical basis for its approach, and the first phenomenological investigation -- one that attempts to penetrate the process of creation for these novelists. Organized along conceptual lines, the book examines "the word in exile," the themes of death of the father and the child, transformations of the self, and the implications of the reader. Its philosophical foundations are Rosenzweig, Buber, Neher, and Levinas. Its critical approach is shaped by Bakhtin.
The novelists of the Holocaust, in witnessing through their words, regain their voices and in so doing are reborn. By probing the depths of their struggle, Patterson's study draws us too toward a higher understanding, perhaps even our own rebirth.
E-Book Content
THE
SHRIEK OF SILENCE
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THE
OFSILENCE APhenomenology of the Holocaust Novel DAVID PATTERSON
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY
Copyright © 1992 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine College, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Club, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. Editorial and Sales Offices: Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Patterson, David, 1948The shriek of silence : a phenomenology of the Holocaust novel / David Patterson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8131-6013-9
1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature. fiction-History and criticism. I. Title. PN56.H55P38 1992 809' .93358-dc20
2. Jewish
91-17269
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. §
Contents
Prologue / 1 1 Theoretical Background / 3 2 The Word in Exile / 29 3 The Death of the Father / 54 4 The Death of the Child / 77 5 The Splitting of the Self / 98 6
The Resurrection of the Self / 123
7 The Implication of the Reader / 145 Epilogue / 168 Works Cited / 170 Index / 177
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For MiriaIll and Rachel and, with deepest love and gratitude, for Illy wife, Gerri
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Prologue
"And it came to pass in those days that terror denied all languages and frontiers" (Wiesel, Six Days 5). For those were days invaded by night, the days of the reign of the Kingdom of Night. They are days that haunt and harrow all subsequent days, w