Holocaust Trauma and Jewish Identity across Generations in Alison Pick's Far to Go

Abstract

AbstractThe central purpose of this paper is to outline the key concerns with regard to literature by the children and grandchildren of those Jewish individuals who lived through the Nazi killing project. This paper begins with a cross‐disciplinary survey of the issues which surround the recurring questions of Jewish identity and the right to speak on the Shoah for the second and third generation. The argument presented is that, due to the moral and logistical immensity of their subject, as well as the dominant discourse on the Holocaust, many members of the second and third generations do not feel that they are able to take ownership of, or see themselves as a part of, their family history. These themes are then explored in relation to third‐generation writer Alison Pick's novel Far to Go, looking specifically at the ways in which the novel reflects question of Jewish identity for the second and third generation.