Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

Suspect Survival

Matrophobia in Postmemory Generational Writing

Bibliographic Data

ID12948459
AuthorsElizabeth Kella (Södertörn University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume33
Issue1
Pages89-117
Publication date2019-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican, British and Canadian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1841-1487 • E-ISSN: 1841-964X
PublisherDe Gruyter Open (PUBLISHER • PL)
DOI10.2478/abcsj-2019-0017
OpenAlexW2998275084
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited9

Family and kinship carry special significance to Holocaust survivors and their descendants. In autobiographies and family memoirs, writers of what Marianne Hirsch terms the postmemory generation employ different narrative strategies for coming to terms with the ways in which the Holocaust has marked their identities and family ties. This article focuses on women’s writing of the postmemory generation, examining three works in English by daughters of survivors in the UK, the US, and Canada, written during the 1990s. It investigates the narrative strategies used by Anne Karpf, Helen Fremont, and Lisa Appignanesi to represent maternal sexual agency and vulnerability in a survival context. It suggests that these representations are strongly influenced by matrophobia and matrophilia, defined as the conflicting dread of becoming and desire to be one’s mother, which are themselves strongly conditioned by Holocaust history, particularly the gendered history of vulnerability among women in open hiding during the war 1

Agency (philosophy · Art · Art history · Context (archaeology · Genealogy · Holocaust survivors · Kinship · Life writing · Literature · Memoir · Narrative · Political science · Social science · Sociology · The Holocaust · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis

  • Matrophobia and Uncanny Kinship

    Open Access•Elizabeth Kella•Humanities•2018

  • Of Woman Born

    Adrienne Rich, Eula Biss•Of Woman Born•2021

  • Anglo-Jewish Women Writing the Holocaust

    Open Access•Phyllis Lassner•Anglo-Jewish Women Writing the…•2008

  • The Drowned and the Saved

    Primo Levi•Holocaust•2003

  • The Generation of Postmemory

    Marianne Hirsch•The Generation of Postmemory•2012

  • Matrophobic Sisters and Daughters

    D Lynn O’Brien Hallstein•Women s Studies•2007

Unique citing works1
Citations per year0,13
Citation span2018 - 2018 (1)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 1

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae