The Subject of Holocaust Fiction by Emily Miller Budick

The Subject of Holocaust Fiction by Emily Miller Budick

Fictional representations of horrific events run the risk of undercutting efforts to verify historical knowledge and may heighten our ability to respond intellectually and ethically to human experiences of devastation. In this captivating study of the epistemological, psychological, and ethical issues underlying Holocaust fiction, Emily Miller Budick examines the subjective experiences of fantasy, projection, and repression manifested in Holocaust fiction and in the reader's encounter with it. Considering works by Cynthia Ozick, Art Spiegelman, Aharon Appelfeld, Michael Chabon, and others, Budick investigates how the reading subject makes sense of these fictionalized presentations of memory and trauma, victims and victimizers.

The Subject of Holocaust Fiction is a profoundly challenging work of literary criticism by a brave critic who asks us to look beyond the difficult hard facts of the Holocaust to the complex subjectivities of all those affected by it, a scholar whose final legacy to us is the insistence that the subject of humanities scholarship must ultimately and always be the human

* Studies in Contemporary Jewry *

E. M. Budick's The Subject of Holocaust Fiction is a timely addition to the steadily growing academic canon on Holocaust fiction. . . As Budick rightly acknowledges, it is . . . self-scrutiny performed both by its writers and by its readers, that makes Holocaust fiction so important and that should ensure its future standing.

* Literature and History *

Budick (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) presents new readings of well-known and understudied but significant texts of Holocaust fiction. . . This is an important contribution to literary studies. . . . Highly recommended.V.47 2016

* Choice *

[E]xamining the themes of mourning, memory, and love, and considering the relationship of the Holocaust to apartheid and animal slaughter, the author provides a framework for students of literature, history, religion, philosophy, and ethics.

* American Reference Book Annual *

Gathers together almost a dozen essays on key Holocaust writers, from Cynthia Ozick and William Styron (in his role as the author of Sophie's Choice) to W. G. Sebald and Art Spiegelman. 5/11/16

* Times Literary Supplement *

Emily Miller Budick packs an astonishing number of texts into The Subject of Holocaust Fiction and explores them through a number of lenses. Students and scholars of comparative literatures, Holocaust studies, or trauma and psychology in literature will all find something of interest, and for those familiar with many of the above texts the intertextual reading the author weaves through the book makes it a useful new resource.

* Holocaust Studies *

Emily Miller Budick holds the Ann and Joseph Edelman Chair in American Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she is also chair of the Department of English and Director of the Center for Literary Studies. Her major publications include Fiction and Historical Consciousness, Engendering Romance, Blacks and Jews in Literary Conversation, and Aharon Appelfeld's Fiction (IUP, 2004).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780253016300
ISBN 10	0253016304
Title	The Subject of Holocaust Fiction
Author	Emily Miller Budick
Series	Jewish Literature And Culture
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Indiana University Press
Year published	2015-05-20
Number of pages	266
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.