Description
Book SynopsisThis volume engages with memory of the Holocaust as expressed in literature, film, and other media. It focuses on the cultural memory of the second and third generations of Holocaust survivors, while also taking into view those who were children during the Nazi period. Language loss, language acquisition, and the multiple needs of translation are recurrent themes for all of the authors discussed. By bringing together authors and scholars (often both) from different generations, countries, and languages, and focusing on transgenerational and translational issues, this book presents multiple perspectives on the subject of Holocaust memory, its impact, and its ongoing worldwide communication.
Trade ReviewTranslated Memories grew out of a conference held in Essen, Germany, in July 2015. As editors Hofmann (Univ. of Wuppertal, Germany) and Reuter (Germania Judaica, Cologne Library on the History of German Jewry) state in the introduction, their “interest is in specific cases of Holocaust memory as expressed in different languages and media by members of the second and third generations of Holocaust survivors." Another crucial point of interest for them "is the mode of translation ... [understood] both literally and metaphorically.” The resulting 22 essays are groundbreaking in their conceptual diversity, many of them insightful and well researched and enriched by, and sometimes paired with, compelling personal stories by the children and grandchildren of survivors. The existing literature on Holocaust memory is already vast, yet these essays put forth new and invaluable ideas that seek to answer how "later-born authors approach memories transmitted by surviving family members.” Of particular note are the five essays in part 4 (“Objects and What to Make of Them”), which look at the special significance of memories carried by simple objects handed down through generations. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.
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This book is a groundbreaking addition to two emergent fields: the study of the linguistic and cultural translation of Holocaust texts, and the study of intergenerational memory. It is a must-read for scholars in the field. -- Andrea Hammel, co-editor of Translating Holocaust Lives
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Prologue: On Taking Renuka to Her First Concert
Anne Ranasinghe
Introduction
Bettina Hofmann and Ursula Reuter
Part I
Language and Memory
01
The Tongue in Exile
Carol Ascher
02
Translating Oral Memory and Visual Media in Ida Fink’s “Traces”
Daniel Feldman
03
Lies of Ulysses in the Forgotten Camps: French Accounts by Mittelbau-Dora Survivors and Their Uses in Memory Politics
Bruno Arich-Gerz
04
French Canada as a Site of Holocaust Representation
Rebecca Margolis
Part II
Making Sense of the Parents’ Holocaust History
05
Intimate Horror: Memorializing my Mother’s Holocaust
Doron Ben-Atar
06
Invisible Ink: The Limits of Recovery
Julia Epstein and Lori Hope Lefkovitz
07
The Impact of the Shoah on One Scholar’s Journey: An Autobiographical Reflection
Steven Leonard Jacobs
08
Against Forgetting: An Essay in Three Parts
Elizabeth Rosner
Part III
1.5 Generation
09
Hebrew as “Remedy” to the Shoah in Dan Pagis’ Poetry
Federico Dal Bo
10
Vicarious Witnesses and Translation in Kindertransport Poetry
Christoph Houswitschka
11
Between Grief and Celebration
Naomi Shmuel
12
The Girl—1943: on reading Karen Gershon
Joseph Swann
Part IV
Objects and What to Make of Them
13
Coming to German
Richard Aronowitz
14
Translating Memory: The Lagertagebuch kept by Isy Aronowitz (1940-43) and Five Amber Beads (2006) by Richard Aronowitz
Christoph Heyl
15
Found Objects: The Legacy of Third-Generation Holocaust Memory
Victoria Aarons
16
Why Don’t You Talk to Me? Transmissional Objects in the Works of Gila Lustiger and Nicole Krauss
Maria Roca Lizarazu
17
Pebbles on the Trail of Time: Peter Wortsman’s and Louise Steinman’s Travelogues
Bettina Hofmann
Part V
Members of the Second and Third Generation in Quest of Their Identity
18
Attempting to Remember What They Never Knew: The Identity Quest of Second and Third Generation Holocaust Survivors as Reflected in Recent Israeli Documentary
Yael Munk
19
Beyond Age and Nationality: Transgenerational and Transnational Memories in Robert Schindel’s Gebürtig and Der Kalte
Lilian Gergely
20
Translating Silence: Non-Memory, Lost Memory and Holocaust Literature
Sue Lieberman
21
Narratives beyond Words: Notes on the Embodiment of Trauma and Cultural/Religious Jewishness among Third Generation Jews in Germany
Dani Kranz
22
Epilogue: The Fairy Tale of the Blessed Meal
Peter Wortsman
About the Contributors
