Structural and cultural analysis of a Holocaust narrative / by Margaret Zadok

Even while telling the most horrific of stories, the speaker of an oral Holocaust narrative uses a form that is routine and universal. It is the intention of this study to prove the truth of this statement through the use of both structural and cultural analyses of narrative discourse. The paper describes the regularities of oral narrative structure by using Labov's scheme to demonstrate its presence in this Holocaust narrative. The cultural analysis, based on Polanyi's and Tannen's methods, also proves appropriate for this Holocaust narrative. While demonstrating the universality of this narrative, this thesis also proves the uniqueness of a Holocaust narrative. The data used in this study was gathered from the extensive, tape recorded narrative of a Holocaust survivor. This paper further demonstrates the importance of oral narrative in the classroom to augment the teaching of ESL, language, and writing.