LEADER 03926cam a2200385Ia 4500001 23297 005 20240621143008.0 008 951205s1992 xx rb 000 0 eng d 035 ocm33852459 035 USHOM 33451 035 23297 040 ECL |beng |erda |cECL 050 00 PQ2683.I32 |bZ657 1992 100 1 Diamant, Naomi. 245 14 The boundaries of Holocaust literature : |bthe emergence of a canon / |cNaomi Diamant. 264 1 [Place of publication not identified] : |b[publisher not identified], |c1992. 300 iii, 403 pages 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 502 Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1992. 504 Bibliography: pages 385-403. 505 0 Elie Wiesel: the Holocaust survivor and the extraterritorial condition -- Contextualizing Wiesel: David Rousset and Jorge Semprun -- Wiesel's Night and One generation after -- Robert Antelme: speakability and the obligation to listen. 520 This dissertation discusses the emergence of a discourse and a field of study, that of Holocaust literature. Because of the magnitude of the events in question, scholars and readers appear to agree that the literature which emerged from the Holocaust must be considered sui generis, an almost sacred literature devoted to the testimony of victims and survivor-writers, marked by a constant struggle between the inadequacy of language to communicate the Holocaust experience and the obligation to testify to it. Thus the most basic premise of this literature seems to be that the events of the Holocaust are so terrible that they cannot be expressed. Despite the vast body of Holocaust literary material in existence, these events are paradoxically considered both unspeakable and beyond comparison. Holocaust literature therefore exists in a hermetic canon, completely removed from comparison and literary interaction with other non-Holocaust literary texts. I examine the figure of Elie Wiesel, who has come to represent the Holocaust survivor, and describe the way that Wiesel as a writer and public figure has become the foundation of a set of mostly tacit assumptions about what constitutes Holocaust literature. I challenge the notion of the hermetic canon, and examine conditions of speakability by describing how French writers like Jorge Semprun, David Rousset and Robert Antelme (all former political deportees to the Nazi camps) find literary strategies of various kinds (intertextual reference, genre, and language itself) that can successfully communicate their own concentration camp experiences. I use this literary context to show that Elie Wiesel adopts similar literary strategies in his own writing about the Holocaust, thereby implicitly fragmenting the boundaries of the canon and its discourse. The hermetic canon constitutes an attempt to ensure that the Holocaust is never forgotten. But the memory of the events and works arising from it cannot be assured by enclosing them in a hermetic canon. Only by bringing Holocaust literature into active dialogue with other literary canons and cultural contexts can collective historical memory retain its significance. 530 Electronic version(s) |bavailable internally at USHMM. 533 Photocopy. |bAnn Arbor, Mich. : |cUMI Dissertation Services, |d1995. |e21 cm. 590 Dissertations and Theses 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 600 10 Wiesel, Elie, |d1928-2016 |xCriticism and interpretation. 650 0 Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature. 856 41 |uhttp://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=746276101&sid=34&Fmt=6&clientId=54617&RQT=309&VName=PQD |zElectronic version from ProQuest 956 41 |uhttp://dc.ushmm.org/library/bib23297/9313581.pdf |zHosted by USHMM. 852 0 |bstacks |hPQ2683.I32 Z657 1992 852 |bwww 852 |bebook