LEADER 03589cam a2200397Ia 4500001 90723 005 20240621174315.0 008 040128s2000 xx rb 000 0 eng d 035 (OCoLC)ocm54781281 035 90723 049 LHMA 040 LHM |beng |erda |cLHM 090 PT3818 |b.T46 2000 100 1 Thornton, Dan F. 245 10 Dualities : |bmyth and the unreconciled past in Austrian and Dutch literature of the 1980s / |cby Dan F. Thornton. 264 1 [Place of publication not identified] : |b[publisher not identified], |c2000. 300 ix, 232 pages 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 502 Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000. 504 Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-232). 520 This dissertation explores some of the ways in which Austrian and Dutch authors writing in the 1980s have contributed new perspectives to the dominant historiography of the Second World War in their respective countries. The literary efforts of these writers reflect the coming-of-age of members of a conflicted "second generation" seeking to lift the burden of myth, guilt, and silence imposed upon them by the postwar societies in which they grew up. In this study, I have looked at two particular issues concerning the second generation. The first shows the difficulty of finding touchstones to one's Jewish heritage in post-Holocaust societies. Both Steins Paranoia by Austrian writer Peter Henisch and Dutch writer Leon de Winter's La Place de la Bastille reveal the tenuous duality of identity that exacerbates the problem of finding a sense of place and belonging for second-generation Holocaust survivors. The second issue I address concerns how other representatives of the second generation have sought to negotiate inherited traumas and memories while endeavoring to reconcile popular attitudes toward the war with their own attempts to come to terms with the past. Comparing Dutch author Harry Mulisch's De aanslag with two works by Austria's Elisabeth Reichart, Februarschatten and Komm über den See, I show how the unresolved past manifests itself in personal identity crises that mirror the identity conflicts plaguing the societies in which the protagonists live. In the final analysis, despite the different historical experiences of Austria and the Netherlands during the Nazi epoch, the traumatic past reveals its lingering effects remarkably similarly among members of the second generation in both countries, haunting the present and threatening to compromise the future. Only in confronting past traumas does a "possibility of history" arise that is no longer compromised by myth or monolithic interpretations. 530 Electronic version(s) |bavailable internally at USHMM. 533 Photocopy. |bAnn Arbor, Mich. : |cUMI Dissertation Services, |d2004. |e23 cm. 590 Dissertations and Theses 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 650 0 Austrian literature |y20th century |xHistory and criticism. 650 0 Dutch literature |y20th century |xHistory and criticism. 650 0 World War, 1939-1945 |xLiterature and the war. 856 41 |uhttp://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=731929711&sid=10&Fmt=6&clientId=54617&RQT=309&VName=PQD |zElectronic version from ProQuest 956 41 |u http://dc.ushmm.org/library/bib90723/9968684.pdf |z Hosted by USHMM. 994 X0 |bLHM 852 0 |bstacks |hPT3818 |i.T46 2000 852 |bwww 852 |bebook