Abstract

This article discusses the apparent desire in Anglo-American Holocaust fiction to form a deeper connection to the horror of the Holocaust by recreating scenes of suffering in the gas chamber. Using Elaine Scarry’s The Body in Pain, Alison Landsberg’s theory of ‘prosthetic memory’ and the concept of ‘feeling-with’ as outlined by Sonia Kruks, it discusses the motives underlying these representations and what an audience stands to learn from these bodily encounters with the Holocaust past. The article begins by discussing texts that explore the notions of temporal and emotional distance and the unreachability of the Holocaust dead, while also reflecting the corresponding impulse to reconnect with the murdered by physicalising them as bodies in pain. It then moves on to works that aim to make the experience of death in the gas chamber literally inhabitable for present-day nonwitnesses. In pursuing this argument, the article focuses on six representative texts: Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993), Bryan Singer’s Apt Pupil (1998), Tim Blake Nelson’s The Grey Zone (2001), The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2006 and 2008, for the book and film respectively), In Paradise (2014) by Peter Matthiessen and Mick Jackson’s Denial (2016).

Highlights

  • In his essay ‘From the Holocaust to the Holocaust’, Claude Lanzmann launches an excoriating attack upon Marvin J

  • Contrary to Mathew Boswell’s assertions, the vividly realistic depictions of violence that feature in Anglo-American Holocaust media do not seem to counter the silence and ineffability that previous depictions opted for

  • There is a marked difference between what we may term Holocaust gratuity and Holocaust Impiety, as the vivid recreation of physical suffering does not add to our understanding of the Holocaust past

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Summary

Introduction

In his essay ‘From the Holocaust to the Holocaust’, Claude Lanzmann launches an excoriating attack upon Marvin J. In his book Fantasies of Witnessing, Gary Weissman discusses the temporal and emotional distance that exists between present-day media consumers and the Holocaust. His text addresses the attempts of nonwitnesses to form a felt connection with the Holocaust past by vicariously engaging with acts of violence. 122) do desire to connect to the Holocaust on a deeper level—to have, in essence, experienced a part of it themselves. This is often achieved, he suggests, through imaginative encounters with bodies in pain.

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