Testimony on the margins: Silence, innocence and the other in Vasilii Grossman’s late fiction

Abstract

This article examines the mode of testimony to trauma employed by Vasilii Grossman in his short later works. Deflecting attention from his main subject, and focusing on peripheral figures and unusual viewpoints, Grossman explores the possibilities and limitations of representing trauma, interrogating how those involved understand and testify to their experiences. The article first discusses the novella Everything Flows, in particular the encounter between Ivan, the Gulag returnee, and Anna, the former activist, that leads to her testimony about the terror famine. It then analyses two stories, ‘Mama’ and ‘The road’, which are characterized by the adoption of marginal focalizers. The article discusses recurring themes such as the absent mother figure and the embodiment of testimony through the senses. These become central to the construction of two modes of witnessing, the relational and the pure, which make testimony possible but also illuminate the difficulties of realizing it.