Chapter 7 Trauma Representation and Aestheticization in North American Young Adult Holocaust Literature
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Abstract
Beyond the question of whether or not the Holocaust should be represented in literature for young people, the complex and contested issue of how to do so in an ethically responsible manner inevitably arises. If, according to trauma theorist Cathy Caruth, a traumatic experience can only be understood as it returns to a victim in flashbacks and fragmented memories, then literary techniques based on them can recreate the experience within literature. Simultaneously, however, such devices also contribute to the literary employment and aestheticization of trauma itself, an undoubtedly controversial strategy. This chapter uses classic American YA Holocaust novels to demonstrate how literary techniques often associated with trauma writing did allow YA authors writing in the 1990s to convey a degree of the traumatic experience. However, it also addresses the problematics of trauma aestheticization. Contemporary YA fiction is used to demonstrate new ways of representing trauma, both within YA Holocaust literature specifically and YA trauma literature more generally.