ENG353Y1 Lecture Notes - Collective Trauma, Simile, Exoticism
Document Summary
Historical trauma: michaels dives beneath the canadian definition of multiculturalism, novel questions concepts of canadian identity and home, michaels invests toronto with meaning and home for athos and jakob. In holocaust literature, there are lots of empty spaces and absences. Jakob traumatized by what he doesn"t see but what he hears. Jakob traumatized by slaughtered parents: p. 17: i did not witness the most important . Idea that language can pass on trauma: trauma narratives don"t just say something, but do something. Jewish people, cp rail incident: there historical events are ignored here; violence not something that just happened in. Idea that language cannot communicate trauma; language isn"t up to the task. He"s struggling with language like biblical jakob struggled with god. Jakob wants to be free of memory: p. 22: i longed to cleanse my mouth of memory . Language used to talk about trauma a political choice.
