Memory Work: The Second Generation (Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies)

Memory Work studies how Jewish children of Holocaust survivors from the English-speaking diaspora explore the past in literary texts. By identifying areas where memory manifests - Objects, Names, Bodies, Food, Passover, 9/11 – it shows how the Second Generation engage with the pre-Holocaust family and their parents' survival. Memory Work makes a contribution to our understanding of the intimate effects of the Holocaust on victims' families, and the significant role of "memory work" by survivors' children within the broader frame of cultural memory in the English-speaking countries of post-war Jewish diasporas. It studies how these authors explore the past in their literary texts -- primarily life writing. By identifying key areas where memory manifests and can be traced -- family objects, given names, bodies, food, the memorial uses of the Passover Seder, and the attacks of 9/11 -- it shows how the Second Generation engages with the pre-Holocaust family and their parents' survival. Departing from prevailing trauma studies approaches, Nina Fischer builds an argument for the positive achievements of memory work by Second Generation writers in reconnecting with their family's pre-Holocaust life, a "usable past", in spite of horrific loss Front Matter....Pages i-vii Introduction Memory Work: The Second Generation....Pages 1-28 Objects....Pages 29-68 Names....Pages 69-98 Bodies....Pages 99-156 Food....Pages 157-194 Passover....Pages 195-211 Experiencing History: 9/11....Pages 212-232 Afterword: On Memory Work....Pages 233-237 Back Matter....Pages 238-262