Literary Criticism - General & Miscellaneous, 20th Century American Literature - General & Miscellaneous - Literary Criticism, Holocaust - Personal Narratives, Women Authors - American (U.S.) - Literary Criticism, Holocaust Biographies, Women - Jewish Lif
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Overview
Women's Holocaust Writing extends Holocaust and literary studies by examining women's artistic representations of female Holocaust experiences, as given voice by Cynthia Ozick, Ilona Karmel, Elzbieta Ettinger, Hana Demetz, Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, Norma Rosen, and Marge Piercy. Through close, insightful reading of fiction, S. Lillian Kremer explores Holocaust representations in works distinguished by the power of their literary expression and attention to women's diverse experiences. She draws upon history, psychology, women's studies, literary analysis, and interviews with authors to compare writing by eyewitnesses working from memory with that by remote "witnesses through the imagination."Synopsis
Examines women's artistic representations of female Holocaust experiences.
Booknews
In perhaps the first book of literary criticism devoted to Holocaust writing by and about women survivors and American-born novelists, Kremer (English, Kansas State U.) adds seven female-gendered perspectives to the creative shaping of personal experience and collective memory related to the (the preferred Hebrew term). Authors discussed are: I. Karmel, E. Ettinger, H. Demetz, S. Fromberg Schaeffer, C. Ozick, M. Piercy, and N. Rosen. Portions of the book have appeared in different form elsewhere. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Editorials
Booknews
In perhaps the first book of literary criticism devoted to Holocaust writing by and about women survivors and American-born novelists, Kremer (English, Kansas State U.) adds seven female-gendered perspectives to the creative shaping of personal experience and collective memory related to the (the preferred Hebrew term). Authors discussed are: I. Karmel, E. Ettinger, H. Demetz, S. Fromberg Schaeffer, C. Ozick, M. Piercy, and N. Rosen. Portions of the book have appeared in different form elsewhere. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Women's Review of Books
Women's Holocaust Writing is the first literary study of this group of writers and their imaginative representation of a cataclysmic event.... [Kremer] succeeds in bringing together portraits of women from a diversity of nationalities, cultures and social classes, and analyzing what distinguishes the work of those who write out of personal experience from those who bear witness through the imagination only...."Women's Review of Books
"[Kremer] succeeds in bringing together portraits of women from a diversity of nationalities, cultures and social classes, and analyzing what distinguishes the work of those who write out of personal experience from those who bear witness through the imagination only. . . . She weaves into her critical discussions not only historical documentation but psychological and sociological studies, feminist and literary theories, as well as the reflections of the authors whom she interviewed. . . . A luminous study. . . . As the spectre of anti-Semitism looms again in Europe and America, the question is how a society deals with difference—all difference of ethnicity, gender, national identity. In this context, reading this complex, scholarly, readable book becomes even more necessary."—Women's Review of BooksChoice
"Though similar in terms of hunger, cold, fear, and mistreatment, women's ordeals in the camps and ghettos and in hiding were and still are different from men's. This gendered distinction is the essence of this book. Kremer is the first scholar to explore this important topic, and what she reveals contributes much to Holocaust studies."—ChoiceStudies in American Jewish Literature
"In giving the women writers and their characters the serious, thoughtful attention they deserve, Kremer both dignifies the subject and draws attention to these outstanding texts; at the same time, her own work adds yet another illustration to the contribution women writers can make to Holocaust study."—Studies in American Jewish LiteratureCriticism
"An extraordinary book. It conveys in rich detail the accounts of three writers who experienced the Holocaust firsthand and four who, as American Jews, powerfully explored the Holocaust through fiction."—CriticismBook Details
Published
March 1, 2001
Publisher
University of Nebraska Press
Pages
278
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780803278004