When dreams become nightmares: a comparative study of Enemies, a love story and The reader

Abstract

This thesis makes a comparative study of two internationally acclaimed texts of Holocaust literature, Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Enemies, a love story and Bernhard Schlink’s The reader. Special attention will be given to the sociopsychological world of Jews and Germans in the post-Holocaust era, namely the Jews’ collective anxiety and the Germans’ collective shame. While doing so, we will call into focus the traumatic symptoms of the two female protagonists Masha and Hanna respectively, and treat the widespread skepticism towards traditional religions and moral philosophy. The questions of how to reconcile the past and the present and how to face the future constitute the thematic core of the texts in case. Both texts reflect the historical catastrophe and reveal the scarred human psyche. They work to offer illuminating insights into the great complexity of human nature. The two texts are a compelling reminder that religious, political and cultural enmities and conflicts may result in irreparable individual and collective trauma, thus necessitating negotiation, dialogue and cooperation between different cultural groups in order to make constructive (rather than destructive) cultural choices.