The Holocaust Trauma, Time Perception and Tempotal Poetics in Ida Fink’s Collection Autobiographical Notes and in the Novel The Journey

Abstract

The development of Holocaust studies has led to many burning issues such as the time perception of the survivors in literature. However, little is known about the temporal poetics of the Holocaust first-generation writer Ida Fink. The study is based on H. Yaoz’s historical and trans-historical narration, A. Pozorski’s and C. Caruth’s trauma theories and A. Zahavi’s and A. Zarka’s theoretical works about Ida Fink. The paper focuses on the representation of time followed by the traumatic experience in Ida Fink’s short stories from Autobiographical Notes and the novel The Journey. The writer introduces the concept of time fragmentation that she calls “Scraps of Time”. The First “Scrap of Time” in her stories characterized by denial of the Holocaust, the narration presents in the form of eroded memories. In this “Scrap”, the text is non-linear and the intensive tone is alternated with tranquil tone. The Second “Scrap of Time” is the time of Jews mass extermination and Ida Fink’s in her stories describes this time as time that “creeps to the Catastrophe.” This term emphasizes that the narration depends on the external events. The author does not name the postholocaust time, but in this article, we distinguished the Third “Scrap of Time” when the characters deny the Holocaust again. Ida Fink uses a wide range of stylistic devices in her time description such as retrospective narration, fragmentation and symbols. Finally, this study distinguishes the correlation between Holocaust trauma and the author’s time perception. In general, the results of the research may serve as a basis to further Holocaust temporal investigations.