The Holocaust and the Shadow Text of Anna and the Swallow Man
This contribution addresses the challenges that face any attempt to render the Holocaust knowable through fiction, for children in particular: namely the need to balance truth with propriety, while giving form to an event that eludes depiction. Analyzing Gavriel Savit’s novel Anna and the Swallow Ma...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2021
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| In: |
Holocaust and genocide studies
Year: 2021, Volume: 35, Issue: 1, Pages: 79-94 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This contribution addresses the challenges that face any attempt to render the Holocaust knowable through fiction, for children in particular: namely the need to balance truth with propriety, while giving form to an event that eludes depiction. Analyzing Gavriel Savit’s novel Anna and the Swallow Man, it argues that the text contains deliberate gaps and ambiguities. All of these gaps, to borrow Perry Nodelman’s term, suggest a “shadow text”—a version of the story unavailable to a younger reader, but hinted at throughout. This shadow text should prompt the child reader to approach an adult to learn more about the Second World War. Yet as Anna approaches her own more adult understanding, Savit reveals that the reality beyond the text remains essentially beyond articulation. |
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| ISSN: | 1476-7937 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Holocaust and genocide studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/hgs/dcab011 |