LEADER 05787cam a2200637 i 4500001 259902 005 20230420144546.0 008 170123t20172017njua b 001 0 eng c 010 2016044027 035 (OCoLC)ocn960492898 040 PUL |beng |erda |cPUL |dYDX |dBDX |dOCLCF |dHUC |dDLC |dLHM 019 960492890 020 9780813589909 |q(hardback) 020 0813589908 |q(hardback) 020 9780813589916 |q(pbk.) 020 0813589916 |q(pbk.) 020 |z9780813589923 020 0813589932 020 9780813589930 020 0813589940 020 9780813589947 042 pcc 090 PN56.H55 |bL24 2017 050 00 PN56.H55 |bL36 2017 049 LHMA 100 1 Lang, Jessica, |d1973- |eauthor. 245 10 Textual silence : |bunreadability and the Holocaust / |cJessica Lang. 264 1 New Brunswick, New Jersey : |bRutgers University Press, |c[2017] 264 4 |c©2017 300 220 pages : |billustrations ; |c24 cm 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 504 Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-208) and index. 505 0 Introduction -- 1: Readability and Unreadability: A Fractured Dialogue -- Part I: Generational Differences in Holocaust Literature. 2: Before, During and After: Reading and the Eyewitness -- 3: Reading to Belong: Second Generation and the Audience of Self -- 4: The Third-Generation's Holocaust: The Story of Time and Place -- Part II: Pushed to the Edges: The Holocaust in American Fiction. 5: American Fiction and the Act of Genocide -- 6: Receding into the Distance: The Holocaust as Background -- 7: Afterwords: Reading the Fragments of Memory. 520 "There are thousands of books that represent the Holocaust, but can, and should, the act of reading these works convey the events of genocide to those who did not experience it? In Textual Silence, literary scholar Jessica Lang asserts that language itself is a barrier between the author and the reader in Holocaust texts--and that this barrier is not a lack of substance, but a defining characteristic of the genre. Holocaust texts, which encompass works as diverse as memoirs, novels, poems, and diaries, are traditionally characterized by silences the authors place throughout the text, both deliberately and unconsciously. While a reader may have the desire and will to comprehend the Holocaust, the presence of "textual silence" is a force that removes the experience of genocide from the reader's analysis and imaginative recourse. Lang defines silences as omissions that take many forms, including the use of italics and quotation marks, ellipses and blank pages in poetry, and the presence of unreliable narrators in fiction. While this limits the reader's ability to read in any conventional sense, these silences are not flaws. They are instead a critical presence that forces readers to acknowledge how words and meaning can diverge in the face of events as unimaginable as those of the Holocaust"-- |cProvided by publisher. 520 "Explores the tension between the will and desire to read and our ultimate inability to do so as it applies to Holocaust literature. I have chosen to focus on Holocaust literature first, perhaps more than any other literary genre or category, questions about Holocaust representation--how we write, draw, narrate, exhibit, present, speak about that event--beginning with the very fact that so much representation exists, have been thoughtfully and determinedly examined by survivors, authors, scholars, artists and others. However, questions of how that representation is processed, or for this book, how representations are read, have received little attention. Second, the presence of the unreadable is made all the more pointed and powerful as more time imposes itself between the actual historical moment in history that Holocaust texts refer to and the act of reading. We as contemporary readers must recognize that the body of Holocaust texts is gradually taking the place of the body of the eyewitness. The sentiment expressed by so many survivors, that language is insufficient to describe their experiences, can, should be and very much is part of the reading experience. That is, a relationship exists--this book explores it--between the limitations of representation in terms of expression by an author and the limits of understanding or processing on the part of a reader. Textual Silence uncovers the literary gaps or silences within texts that impose limitations on the act of reading"-- |cProvided by publisher. 650 0 Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature. 650 0 Silence in literature. 650 0 Memory in literature. 650 0 Mimesis in literature. 650 0 Realism in literature. 650 0 Literature, Modern |y20th century |xHistory and criticism. 650 0 Literature, Modern |y21st century |xHistory and criticism. 650 7 Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) in literature. |2fast |0(OCoLC)fst00958923 650 7 Literature, Modern. |2fast |0(OCoLC)fst01000172 650 7 Memory in literature. |2fast |0(OCoLC)fst01787079 650 7 Mimesis in literature. |2fast |0(OCoLC)fst01896075 650 7 Realism in literature. |2fast |0(OCoLC)fst01091237 650 7 Silence in literature. |2fast |0(OCoLC)fst01118531 650 7 LITERARY CRITICISM |xJewish. |2bisacsh 648 7 1900-2099 |2fast 655 7 Criticism, interpretation, etc. |2fast |0(OCoLC)fst01411635 856 41 |3Electronic version(s) available. |zHosted by ProQuest Ebook Central |uhttps://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ushmm/detail.action?docID=4789850 852 0 |bscstacks |hPN56.H55 |iL24 2017 852 |bebook