LEADER 03631cam a2200397Ia 4500001 93985 005 20240621175435.0 008 040519s2003 xx rb 000 0 eng d 035 (OCoLC)ocm55892379 035 93985 049 LHMA 040 LHM |beng |erda |cLHM 090 PN56.I5923 |bP69 2003 100 1 Pozorski, Aimee L. |q(Aimee Lynn) 245 10 Figures of infanticide : |btraumatic modernity and the inaudible cry / |cby Aimee L. Pozorski. 264 1 [Place of publication not identified] : |b[publisher not identified], |c2003. 300 229 pages 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 502 Thesis (Ph.D.)--Emory University, 2003. 504 Includes bibliographical references (pages 214-229). 520 "Figures of Infanticide: Traumatic Modernity and the Inaudible Cry" intervenes in the fields of modernism, American literature, Holocaust studies, and trauma theory by interpreting figures of murdered infants in twentieth-century discourse. These figures, I propose, illustrate a considerable ambivalence surrounding modernist literature and modernity, as well as emphasize the profound difficulty of representing child-murder in "realist" literatures of genocide. Further, my project suggests through trauma theory that we extend the boundaries of modernist American literature beyond the standard date of 1945. In particular, "Figures of Infanticide" reassesses the force of modernism in the careers of Sigmund Freud, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Reznikoff, Amy Clampitt, and Toni Morrison. Via such texts as Freud's "A Child is Being Beaten", (1919), Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms (1929), Reznikoff s Holocaust (1975), Clampitt's "The Burning Child", (1983), and Morrison's Beloved (1987), I demonstrate how literary figures uniquely depict infanticide in history but also draw on the figure of the infans-"without speech"-as something befalling language in order to emphasize both the incommunicability of these events and the sudden foreclosure of futurity in modern narrative forms. I use these authors as exemplary cases, noting that many 20th-century texts feature inexplicable scenes of the death of an infant. I interpret how such figures of infanticide inscribe the legacy of "traumatic modernity" comprising the traces of war, slavery, and genocide. My definition of traumatic modernity not only focuses on traumatic history but, equally important, on literary modernism itself, suggesting that this literary tradition, although anticipated, was traumatic in its own emergence. In so doing, this project's original archival research coupled with a rhetorical focus on such major figures in modern and contemporary literature suggest key revisions in the origins of modernism and pose new questions of literary valuation in the modernist tradition. 530 Electronic version(s) |bavailable internally at USHMM. 533 Photocopy. |bAnn Arbor, Mich. : |cUMI Dissertation Services, |d2004. |e22 cm. 590 Dissertations and Theses 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 650 0 Infanticide in literature. 650 0 Modernism (Literature) 650 0 Literature, Modern |y20th century |xHistory and criticism. 856 41 |uhttp://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765244841&sid=52&Fmt=6&clientId=54617&RQT=309&VName=PQD |zElectronic version from ProQuest 956 41 |u http://dc.ushmm.org/library/bib93985/3080351.pdf |z Hosted by USHMM. 994 X0 |bLHM 852 0 |bstacks |hPN56.I5923 |iP69 2003 852 |bwww 852 0 |bebook