Intimations of the Holocaust from the Recollections of Early Childhood
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8910183 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aleksandar Stević (0000-0001-5827-7748, University of Cambridge, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 439-465 |
| Publication date | 2014-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comparative Literature Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0010-4132 • E-ISSN: 1528-4212 |
| Publisher | The Pennsylvania State University Press (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5325/complitstudies.51.3.0439 |
| OpenAlex | W2094857044 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 8 |
Nostalgia, we are told, is in the business of idealizing the past. Because nostalgia is routinely associated with the falsification and distortion of memory, any discussion about its role in Holocaust representation is fraught with ethical concerns. What purpose can nostalgic sentimentality serve in evoking the reality of the genocide? This essay argues that nostalgia's power to falsify, distort, and sentimentalize the past can be productively and self-consciously mobilized to explore the mechanisms of both remembrance and suppression of memory. As I demonstrate through the readings of Danilo Kiš's Family Circus and Christa Wolf's Patterns of Childhood, because nostalgia raises questions about the possibility of recovering the past, about the dynamics of projection and recuperation, and about the continuity of the self, fictional texts stage nostalgic homecomings precisely in order to confront the realities of both Jewish persecution and Nazification. Nostalgia, in other words, serves not only as mechanism for working through traumatic memories, but as a catalyst for a critical examination of the past
Aesthetics · Art · Genocide · Literature · Persecution · Politics · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · Representation (politics · Sentimentality · The Holocaust · History · Law · Literature and Cultural Memory · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior · Philosophy · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |