Making the unspeakable visible? Representation of intergenerational trauma and memory in second- and third-generation graphic memoirs about the Holocaust
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2020-06-02
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en
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This thesis explores the different ways in which the intergenerational memory of the Holocaust is visualised in graphic memoirs written by second- and third-generation survivors. Specifically, it focuses on the following graphic memoirs: Bernice Eisenstein’s I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors (2006), Martin Lemelman’s Mendel’s Daughter (2006), Amy Kurzweil’s Flying Couch (2016), and Jérémie Dres’s We Won’t See Auschwitz (2012). Through a close-reading, this thesis analyses how these memoirs visualise personal and collective trauma in relation to intergenerational memory. It demonstrates that, despite the graphic narrative, the memoirs are not able to make the unseen visible and, thus, visualise trauma. Furthermore, the subsequent generations of the Holocaust are so inherently connected by memory that they are incapable of detaching themselves from Holocaust memory. This thesis positions itself within the fields of life writing, comic studies, and trauma studies.
Keywords: cultural memory / intergenerational memory / Holocaust / graphic memoir / trauma / memory transmission / life writing
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Faculteit der Letteren