Memory and Testimony in Extraordinary Times
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2021.e75258Abstract
This paper analyzes two parallel and opposed testimonies of mass annihilation in World War II: Primo Levi’s report of his gruesome experiences in Auschwitz, in The Drowned and the Saved; the testimony of the fire-bombing of Dresden, that killed 130,000 civilians in 1945, recorded by a young American POW, private Kurt Vonnegut Jr, in his novel Slaughterhouse-five. It is basically structured along the phases of the historiographic operation proposed by Paul Ricoeur – testimony and recording of testimonies; questioning of the records and written historical representation of the past – with the objective of drawing conclusions about the role of literature in keeping alive memories that might prevent further atrocities. Steppingstones include the urge to bear witness, the paradoxical links between victims and perpetrators and the choice of literary genders to convey messages. References are made to René Girard’s concept of the scapegoat mechanism as an explanation for the eruption of violence in social groups.
References
Agamben, Giorgio. O que resta de Auschwitz. O arquivo e a testemunha, translated by Selvino J. Assmann. Boitempo, 2008.
Bloom, Harold (Ed.) Kurt Vonnegut. Modern Critical Views. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2000.
Girard, René. The Scapegoat. The Johns Hopkins UP, 1989.
Girar, René. Violence and the Sacred. 7.ed. The Johns Hopkins UP, 1992.
Lejeune, Philippe. (org. Jovita MG Noronha) O pacto autobiográfico. De Rousseau à Internet. Ed. UFMG, 2008.
Levi, Primo. The Drowned and the Saved, translated by Raymond Rosenthal. Summit Books, 1988.
______ Is This a Man? / The Truce, translated by Stuart Woolf. Hachette Essentials. Brown Book Group. 1969. Kindle edition.
Olderman, Raymond. Beyond the Waste Land. A Study of the American Novel in the Nineteen-Sixties. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1973.
Ricoeur, Paul. A memória, a história o esquecimento, translated by Alan François [et al.]. Unicamp, 2007.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Science Fiction. New York Times Book Review. Sept.5, 1965.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five. Triad/Granada, 1969.
Vonnegurt, Kurt. Palm Sunday. An Autobiographical Collage. Dell Publishing Co., 1981.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Mail Marques de Azevedo
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
![Creative Commons Licence](https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.