Revealing silencesVoiceless traces of gendered trauma in female holocaust survivors’ writing.

  1. Miñano Mañero, Laura 1
  1. 1 Universitat de València
    info

    Universitat de València

    Valencia, España

    ROR https://ror.org/043nxc105

Aldizkaria:
IJES: international journal of English studies

ISSN: 1578-7044,  1989-6131

Argitalpen urtea: 2024

Alea: 24

Zenbakia: 1

Orrialdeak: 189-208

Mota: Artikulua

DOI: 10.6018/IJES.548931 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDIGITUM editor

Beste argitalpen batzuk: IJES: international journal of English studies

Laburpena

This paper intends to unravel the nexus between sexual violence and silence in textual and figurative silence in female Holocaust survivors’ writing. I will argue that these tropes allow authors to acknowledge and explore the nature of a gender-specific trauma. The sources under examination encompass Ruth Klüger (2001), Gisella Perl (1948), Judith Magyar-Isaacson (1990), Judith Dribben (1970) and Elzbieta Ettinger (1986), whose works significantly delve into these unspoken realms. I suggest that the tension between the endured sexual violence and the challenges of bearing witness to it is mirrored in these silences, which are infused with narrative strategies that gender the Shoah, illustrate embodied experience and reclaim the victim’s agency. Though feminist Holocaust scholarship has recently turned its focus to the study of sexual violence, its imbrication with silence merits further scrutiny. My approach provides a new framework to stimulate this discussion by igniting the reflection on literary silences.

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