The Witness of Poetry
Holocaust Representation in Abraham Sutzkever and David Fram
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20156797 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hermione Frankel (0000-0002-6968-6202, University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author), Hazel Frankel (University of the Witwatersrand) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 34-48 |
| Publication date | 2021-10-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Literary Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0256-4718 • E-ISSN: 1753-5387 |
| Publisher | Unisa Press (PUBLISHER • ZA) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02564718.2021.1997170 |
| OpenAlex | W4200039746 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 13 |
This article discusses a selection of Holocaust poems by Abraham Sutzkever together with several written by David Fram as they epitomise how historical forces shape individual lives, highlighting how the differences in location and experience influenced their creative output. In order to do so, it locates the poets physically and aesthetically, and then compares several poems through in-depth analyses of their choice of metaphor and language. Affirming the continuing significance of Yiddish in the face of the almost-total annihilation of its speakers, the article also validates poetry as a form of testimony.Although both poets were born in the Russian Empire, by the time World War II broke out, Sutzkever became a witness-participant in the Vilna Ghetto, Lithuania, while Fram was in Johannesburg, South Africa. Sutzkever’s poems provide personal, instantaneous and localised focal points, and shed light on the immediate horrific reality, whereas Fram’s symbolic reflections wrestle with what happened in the killing fields and so illuminate a broader, more panoramic view. They also emphasise his empathy. By bearing witness, these poems provide an arena in which to address Jewish suffering and keep the Holocaust alive and visible. In resisting amnesia of what once was and is no more, the poets also memorialise the victims
Aesthetics · Art · Empathy · Judaism · Literature · Metaphor · Poetry · Politics · The Holocaust · Theology · Witness · Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity · History · Law · Literature, Politics, and Exile Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Translation Studies and Practices
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |