An Unexpected FraternityAn Approach to Holocaust Memoirs in English Through Animal Metaphorization
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Universitat de València
info
ISSN: 0570-7218
Any de publicació: 2020
Número: 70
Pàgines: 197-231
Tipus: Article
Altres publicacions en: Archivum: Revista de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras
Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible
Resum
This paper examines autobiographical texts written by Nazi concentration camp survivors to explore the authors’ metaphorization of animals as a means of conveying their own suffering. The authors whose memoirs are analyzed migrated to America after the war, and significantly chose to pen their traumatic experience in English, which must have been a challenging endeavor for them as non-native speakers. Since academic discussion on the Holocaust is mainly conducted in an Anglophone framework, it is vital that we pay attention to English-language memoirs, and listen to the survivors’ genuine words, rather than merely relying on translations. I suggest that animal metaphorization allows them to overcome in some way the ineffability inherent to all Holocaust memoirs. Moreover, by exploring animal images it is possible to inquire about their personal attitudes regarding other species, as authors often sympathize with –and relate to– animal suffering. My main goal is thus to decide whether this rhetorical resource points at the emergence of an interspecies empathy, based on the shared ability to feel pain and, as sentient beings, to suffer.
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