| TAZ-TFG-2014-1657 |
Memory, Trauma and the Perpetrator Figure: Transgenerational Responses to the Holocaust in Rachel Seiffert's The Dark Room
Batlle Gavín, María
Martínez Alfaro, María Jesús (dir.)
Universidad de Zaragoza,
FFYL,
2014
Filología Inglesa y Alemana department, Filología Inglesa area
Graduado en Estudios Ingleses
Free keyword(s): rachel seiffert ; the dark room ; el cuarto oscuro ; trauma ; memory ; memoria ; perpetrator ; perpretador ; transgenerational ; transgeneracional ; transmission ; transmisión ; holocaust ; holocausto ; nazism ; nazismo ; ordinary germans ; alemanes ordinarios ; language ; lenguaje ; photography ; fotografía ; postmemory ; postmemoria
Tipo de Trabajo Académico: Trabajo Fin de Grado
Notas: This essay focuses on Rachel Seiffert’s novel The Dark Room (2001), which is analysed here in the context of Holocaust-related narratives and as an illustration of the so-called “perpetrator fiction”. The term “perpetrator” may be understood as referring to those who actively participated in the genocide, but has also been used in connection with people differently involved in/affected by the event, other than victims and their descendants. Thus, the main characters in the three novella-length stories that make up The Dark Room represent what is known as “ordinary Germans”, who did not commit atrocities but whose lives were (or are still) affected by the Holocaust. The protagonists of each of the three narratives are young Germans belonging to different generations and their respective stories offer the reader a not very frequently explored perspective when it comes to the field of fictional literature in general, and English fiction, in particular. Literary representations of the Holocaust have flourished in a period marked by the “memory boom” and the development of Trauma Studies, which provide a context for my analysis of Seiffert’s work and constitute the main focus of the introductory section to this essay. After this introduction, I deal with each story, delving into main themes and motifs and paying special attention to the protagonists’ evolution. My analysis tries to highlight the effects of the Holocaust through time, the workings of postmemory and the way in which traumatic memories may affect the descendants of those who did not live the events themselves, included, as is the case in Seiffert’s work, perpetrators’ descendants. The final section ties together the issues dealt with in the previous analysis and also comments on the author’s stylistic choices. I try to show how the latter illustrate the way in which language/words fall short when dealing with traumatic events, but I also relate them to the central role of photography in The Dark Room. All this makes for reflection on the value and the shortcomings of narrative and photography when it comes to representing the horrors of the past and its haunting ghosts in the present.
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