Jewish Agents of Memory in Linda Grant’s Still Here: A Transgenerational and Intersectional Feminist Reading

Abstract

ABSTRACT By drawing on Jewish feminist scholarship along with intersectional feminism, the aim of this article is to explore whether the construction of the female protagonist and gender relations in Linda Grant’s novel Still Here (2002) offer fruitful models for reshaping Jewish memories and identities. I examine the way memory in the novel becomes multidirectional and palimpsestic by fusing various dimensions of time and space. Set in Liverpool and Dresden, with their very different histories, the novel traces how the two middle-aged Jewish protagonists, Alix Rebick and Joseph Shields, discover each other’s personal as well as disturbing family memories. The multidirectional and transgenerational bonds that connect them lead to their falling in love; and their relationship is shown to develop as a result of their ability to overcome their traumatic experiences and to open their own selves to feel empathic towards each other’s pain. The issues and questions raised in the novel are examined from the perspective of Jewish and intersectional feminism so as to fully explore Alix’s agency in coming to terms with her inherited past and troubled Jewish female identity.