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On words and wounds : intergenerational trauma and identity in selected Shoah and apartheid memoirs
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2022.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | en_ZA |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2022
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| _version_ | 1867613948794109952 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Alhadeff, Lara |
| author2 | Van der Rede, Lauren |
| author_browse | Alhadeff, Lara Van der Rede, Lauren |
| author_facet | Van der Rede, Lauren Alhadeff, Lara |
| author_sort | Alhadeff, Lara |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2022. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/126013 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | en_ZA |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:44:15.221Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publishDateRange | 2022 |
| publishDateSort | 2022 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/126013 On words and wounds : intergenerational trauma and identity in selected Shoah and apartheid memoirs Alhadeff, Lara Van der Rede, Lauren Steiner, Tina Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English. Shoah memoirs Apartheid memoirs Generational trauma Psychic trauma in literature Children of Holocaust survivors -- Psychology Apartheid -- South Africa -- Psychological aspects UCTD Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2022. ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Following the trauma of the Shoah, many survivors took to writing their experiences in memoir. The trauma memoir, a term defined in the body of this thesis, became a significant space to share real world experiences of a genocide that shocked the world. Trauma is continuous, it lives on through the repetitive behaviours of the survivor, a concept that Sigmund Freud conceptualizes as the “compulsion to repeat” (XVII 1920–1922 19). These enduring expressions of trauma made space for a new kind of Shoah memoir; the memoir written by the child of the survivor. These memoirs opened a space to unpack the symptoms of intergenerational trauma. Samuel Juni explains, in his discussion of intergenerational trauma, that following the Shoah, many survivors “adopted various coping strategies” “to maintain a functional life” (99). However, given the severity of their experiences, many of these strategies “engendered significant negative repercussions in the children they raised,” labelling these children as survivors in their own right (99). Following the dismantling of apartheid South Africa, just 28 years ago, the effects of intergenerational trauma are still unfolding. This thesis argues that the severity of violence, economic and social devastation and exclusion, and the persecution of Black people under the apartheid government, constitutes an intersection with Raphael Lemkin’s nuanced definition of genocide, in Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation – Analysis of Government – Proposals for Redress. By drawing on four selected memoirs from these two historical events, this thesis aims to analyse how these works narrate the complexities of intergenerational trauma through idiosyncratic and personal experiences. On Words and Wounds: Intergenerational Trauma and Identity in Selected Shoah and Apartheid Memoirs considers the intersection of literature and psychoanalysis in the trauma memoir. This thesis considers the representation of intergenerational trauma and its effects on identity in the following four memoirs: Art Spiegelman’s The Complete Maus, Mark Kurzem’s The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father’s Nazi Boyhood, Lukhanyo and Abigail Calata’s My Father Died for This, and Kelly-Eve Koopman’s Because I Couldn’t Kill You. The narratives utilise language to emulate the affective dimensions of trauma through the representations of the traumatised psyche. As Roger J. Kurtz suggests, in Trauma and Transformation in African Literature, “literature shares a language with trauma in a way that other discourses do not” (7). Accordingly, literary devices, such as a fragmented narrative structure, metaphor, and narrative voice, can be used to symbolize the traumatised psyche. This thesis aims to add to the ongoing conversations concerned with the theoretical frameworks pertaining to literary trauma theory and intergenerational trauma, and the four selected memoirs. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ná die trauma van die Sjoa, het baie oorlewendes begin om hul ervarings in memoir te skryf. Die trauma-memoir, ʼn term wat in die liggaam van hierdie tesis gedefinieer is, het ʼn belangrike hulpmiddel geword om werklike wêreldervarings van ʼn volksmoord – wat die wêreld geskok het – te kan deel. Trauma is aanhoudend en leef voort deur die herhalende gedrag van die oorlewende, ʼn konsep wat Sigmund Freud konseptualiseer het as “die dwang om te herhaal” Sigmund Freud conceptualizes as the “compulsion to repeat” (XVII 1920– 1922 19). Hierdie blywende uitdrukkings van trauma het plek gemaak vir ʼn nuwe soort memoir: die memoir wat deur die kind van die oorlewende geskryf is. Hierdie memoirs het die unieke geleentheid geskep om die simptome van intergenerasie-trauma te ontleed. Samuel Juni verduidelik, in sy bespreking oor intergenerasie-trauma, dat baie oorlewendes, as gevolg van die Sjoa, “verskeie hanteringstrategieë aangeneem het” “om ʼn funksionele lewe te handhaaf” (99). Gegewe die erns van hul ervarings, het baie van hierdie strategieë egter “beduidende negatiewe reperkussies gehad vir die kinders wat hulle grootgemaak het,” en dus kan hul kinders ook as oorlewendes beskou word (99). Ná die aftakeling van apartheid, net 28-jaar gelede, ontvou die gevolge van intergenerasie- trauma nog steeds. Dié tesis betoog dat die erns van die geweld, ekonomiese en sosiale verwoesting en uitsluiting, en die algemene vervolging van Swart mense onder die apartheidsregering, ʼn kruising vorm met Raphael Lemkin se genuanseerde definisie van volksmoord, wat in Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress voorgestel is. Deur gebruik te maak van vier geselekteerde memoirs uit hierdie twee historiese gebeure, beoog dié tesis om die manier waarop hierdie werke die kompleksiteite van intergenerasie-trauma vertel deur middel van eiesoortige en persoonlike ervarings te analiseer. On Words and Wounds: Intergenerational Trauma and Identity in Selected Shoah and Apartheid Memoirs beskou die kruising van literatuur en psigoanalise in die trauma-memoir. Dié tesis oorweeg die voorstelling van intergenerasie-trauma en die uitwerking daarvan op identiteit in die volgende vier memoirs: Art Spiegelman se The Complete Maus, Mark Kurzem se The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood, Lukhanyo en Abigail Calata se My Father Died for This, en Kelly-Eve Koopman se Because I Couldn't Kill You. Die narratiewe maak gebruik van taal om die affektiewe dimensies van trauma na te boots deur die voorstellings van die getraumatiseerde psige. In Trauma and Transformation in African Literature, word dit deur Roger J. Kurtz voorgestel dat “die literatuur deel met trauma ʼn taal wat ander diskoerse nie doen nie” (7). Gevolglik kan literêre middele, byvoorbeeld ʼn gefragmenteerde narratiewe struktuur, metafoor en die narratiewe- stem, gebruik word om die getraumatiseerde psige te simboliseer. Dié tesis het ten doel om by te voeg tot die deurlopende gesprekke rondom die teoretiese raamwerke in verband met die literêre-trauma teorie en intergenerasie-trauma, en die vier geselekteerde memoirs. Masters 2022-11-11T10:51:32Z 2023-01-16T12:45:41Z 2022-11-11T10:51:32Z 2023-01-16T12:45:41Z 2022-12 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/126013 en_ZA Stellenbosch University vii, 114 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Shoah memoirs Apartheid memoirs Generational trauma Psychic trauma in literature Children of Holocaust survivors -- Psychology Apartheid -- South Africa -- Psychological aspects UCTD Alhadeff, Lara On words and wounds : intergenerational trauma and identity in selected Shoah and apartheid memoirs |
| title | On words and wounds : intergenerational trauma and identity in selected Shoah and apartheid memoirs |
| title_full | On words and wounds : intergenerational trauma and identity in selected Shoah and apartheid memoirs |
| title_fullStr | On words and wounds : intergenerational trauma and identity in selected Shoah and apartheid memoirs |
| title_full_unstemmed | On words and wounds : intergenerational trauma and identity in selected Shoah and apartheid memoirs |
| title_short | On words and wounds : intergenerational trauma and identity in selected Shoah and apartheid memoirs |
| title_sort | on words and wounds intergenerational trauma and identity in selected shoah and apartheid memoirs |
| topic | Shoah memoirs Apartheid memoirs Generational trauma Psychic trauma in literature Children of Holocaust survivors -- Psychology Apartheid -- South Africa -- Psychological aspects UCTD |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/126013 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT alhadefflara onwordsandwoundsintergenerationaltraumaandidentityinselectedshoahandapartheidmemoirs |