Literature of the Holocaust

An accessible and wide-ranging overview of literature in multiple languages from the period of the Holocaust and its aftermath.

Alan Rosen (Edited by)

9781107008656, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 November 2013

324 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.6 kg

'In Literature of the Holocaust, contributing authors at once add to this constellation by introducing hitherto untranslated texts to the canon of Holocaust literature; navigate through it by offering geographic and chronological analyses of literary responses to the Holocaust; and gesture towards its immensity.' Natalie Woodward, Notes and Queries

During and in the aftermath of the dark period of the Holocaust, writers across Europe and America sought to express their feelings and experiences through their writings. This book provides a comprehensive account of these writings through essays from expert scholars, covering a wide geographic, linguistic, thematic and generic range of materials. Such an overview is particularly appropriate at a time when the corpus of Holocaust literature has grown to immense proportions and when guidance is needed in determining a canon of essential readings, a context to interpret them, and a paradigm for the evolution of writing on the Holocaust. The expert contributors to this volume, who negotiate the literature in the original languages, provide insight into the influence of national traditions and the importance of language, especially but not exclusively Yiddish and Hebrew, to the literary response arising from the Holocaust.

Introduction Alan Rosen
Part I. Wartime Victim Writing: 1. Wartime victim writing in Eastern Europe David G. Roskies
2. Wartime victim writing in Western Europe David Patterson
Part II. Postwar Responses: 3. The Holocaust and Italian literature Robert S. C. Gordon
4. German literature and the Holocaust Stuart Taberner
5. Hebrew literature of the Holocaust Sheila E. Jelen
6. The Holocaust and postwar Yiddish literature Jan Schwarz
7. The Holocaust in Russian literature Leona Toker
8. The Holocaust in English language literatures S. Lillian Kremer
9. Polish literature on the Holocaust Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska
10. Hungarian Holocaust literature Rita Horváth
11. French literature and the Holocaust Jeffrey Mehlman
Part III. Other Approaches: 12. Oral memoir and the Shoah Alessandro Portelli
13. Songs of the Holocaust Shirli Gilbert
14. Sephardic literary responses to the Holocaust Judith Roumani
15. Anthologizing the Holocaust Alan Rosen
16. The Historian's Anvil, the Novelist's Crucible Eric J. Sundquist.

Subject Areas: Judaism [HRJ], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]