Historiography of the Holocaust: Traumatic Memory in Ellie Wiesel’s Night and Art Spiegelman’s Maus
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Faculty of English
Abstract
his dissertation explores the Holocaust literature from the perspective of traumatic memory of
the victims. The memory of the survivors comes alive in diverse perspectives. The survivors and second
generation of the Holocaust write in quite different ways. I have taken two different genres of literature:
Autobiographical non-fiction and Memoir. It is normally considered that Autobiographical non-fiction
alters facts changing names and genders of characters whereas memoirs are very true to facts using real
names participants. But, Elie Wiesel’s Night, an autobiographical non-fiction, and Art Spiegelman’s
Maus,a memoir, as the testimonies of the Holocaust.Night,by Elie Wiesel, is non-fiction from the
perspective of the survivor who witnessed the harrowing Nazism. Similarly,Maus,by Art Spiegelman, is
a graphic novel from the perspective of the second-generation of the Holocaust survivors. However,
traumatic memory remains as the essence of the both literary works. InNight, Wiesel strives to show
the Holocaust happenings and its psychological aftermath to the eye-witness. A youngnarrator tells the
horrific story of deportation, burning people alive, and silence of the whole world at the cruel massacre
of human being. InMaus, Spiegleman throws a flood of light on the psychology of the second
generation. He also depicts that parent-child relation turns to be bitter when children of the Holocaust
are deprived of the historical facts. While taking interview with his father, Vladek tells Artie not to
include his story in the book, but Artie (Narrator/Writer) includes the story. It isnot a betrayal to his
father but it depicts that Artie is sincere in the exploration the Holocaust.
This dissertation presents the idea of how memory, history and trauma are the basic concerns of
the Holocaust literature. The survivors of the Holocaust carry witness-testimony with them. Wiesel’s
Nightis an example of survivors’ narrative. The survivor gives testimony to his traumatic memory. Not
only the written-testimony, but the survivors’ unearthed experiences, which are to be disclosed, can be
the real source for the study of the Holocaust. Spiegelman’sMauson the other hand, is an example of
the transmission of traumatic memory into other generations. Artie, as the son of Vladek, interviews his
father, gets Vladek’s traumatic memory and transfers itto readers. One thing that connects both these
texts, at the thematic level, is the family-bond existing between the survivors and the second
generation.