Allegorical traces of the traumatic in Cynthia Ozick's "The Shawl"

Zusammenfassung

Despite the fact that Cynthia Ozick’s The Shawl is modelled in a manner that apparently runs counter the propriety imperatives that should guide Holocaust representations, this image-based recreation of the Nazi genocide has established itself as a canonical text. This is largely due to the fact that the book is intended to create awareness about the inner world of Nazi concentration camps. Ozick’s purpose in writing the story is, moreover, to unveil the deadly meaning that survival acquired for those who, having stepped out of hell, found themselves in another kind of hell: the post-Holocaust world. In this sense, it is possible to argue that even if Ozick’s text does not contain the same kind of truth available in historical documents it provides a no less valuable insight. Most importantly, Ozick’s insight into the Nazi genocide is in compliance with the ethical principles ruling Holocaust representation.