Holocaust Reading: Memory and Identification in Holocaust Fiction, 1990–2003

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter examines Holocaust fiction from 1990 onwards. It discusses the definitions of Holocaust fiction, and argues that the definition should be much broader than is generally recognised, by both finding often ignored writing about the Holocaust (for example, by C. S. Forester) and suggesting that much writing has the Holocaust implicitly in mind It argues that Holocaust fiction is a temporal category, not one based on content, and represents a way of approaching texts. Rather than simply naming a genre with special senses of filiation and affiliation, identification wordliness, historicity, public and political concern, use of narrative time, authenticity, and the right of an author to write on these subjects, this chapter explores these in the work of Emily Prager, Lily Brett, Anne Michaels, Jonathan Safran Foer, and the false memoir of Benjamin Wilkomirski.