Strings of Memory: Memory Transfer and Moral Accountability through Strings in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated

Abstract

Abstract This essay explores the unavoidable transfer of ethical accountability to Holocaust perpetrator descendants, as seen in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated. Building upon Maurice Halbwachs’s theory of collective memory and Marianne Hirsch’s theory of postmemory, this essay hypothesizes that Foer uses physical, metaphorical, and structural strings to transfer memories across generations and transmit repercussions such as judgment, guilt, and accountability to perpetrator descendants, a group frequently neglected in Holocaust research. This analysis expands the current scholarly conversation regarding post-Holocaust moral responsibility and demonstrates its transmission to later generations.