Relating remembrance: intersections of post-Holocaust and postcolonial memories in contemporary literatures in French and German

Thesis

Proposing the concept of ‘relating remembrance’ as a form of comparative discourse, ethical enquiry, and a matter of poetics, this thesis casts new light on intersections between post-Holocaust and postcolonial memories in contemporary literatures in French and German. It responds to the shift towards transnational and comparative methodologies which has restructured the field of memory studies in the last two decades, producing scholarship on ‘cosmopolitan’ (Levy and Sznaider), ‘travelling’ and ‘transcultural’ (Erll), ‘multidirectional’ (Rothberg), ‘palimpsestic’ (Silverman), ‘complicated’ (Sanyal), and ‘implicated’ (Rothberg) remembrance. Against the moral optimism inherent in some celebrations of inter-memorial dialogue, I argue that attempts to ‘relate’ different memories are far from universally ethical, necessitating a careful qualitative assessment. This is where an attention to poetics proves especially productive, as literature both participates in and reflects on the terms according to which memories are formed.

I advance this enquiry through four comparative case studies, progressing from the period around 1960 to the present. I open with an analysis of the trilingual Revue internationale (1960-1964), which brought together French, German, and Italian authors at a crucial moment for decolonisation, as well as for the emergence of public Holocaust memory and the process of Franco-German reconciliation. Having acknowledged both the promise and the challenges of this collective project, I then consider how fictional narrative texts might develop more sustainable strategies for bringing post-Holocaust and postcolonial memories into relation. In chapter two, I juxtapose writings by Ingeborg Bachmann and Assia Djebar, questioning topography and narrative perspective as means of relating remembrance. Chapter three progresses to twenty-first-century representations of ethically complex biographies and self-reflexive narrative forms in works by Boualem Sansal, Jérôme Ferrari, and Anne Weber, before chapter four closes with an account of the poetics of time in two recent novels by Anouar Benmalek and Sharon Dodua Otoo.

Authors: Scheithauer, H

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-xrepakg09
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: holocaust; ethics; colonialism; literature; memory
• Subjects: German Studies; Memory Studies; French and Francophone Studies; Comparative Literature