Word: holocaust
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Divine Comedy,” they are the ones who guide Dante through the whole journey. In other words, through Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradiso. In this novel, Beatrice and Virgil are the reader’s guides through hell. When dealing with things as momentous as the Holocaust, or any other historical event, you need a guide...
...would be an extended fugue, beginning so quietly as to be almost inaudible, and culminating in a moment of overwhelming noise followed by silence. With each new piece of his story, Yann Martel examines the form of the novel and how it functions as a means of communication. The Holocaust is his vehicle for this exploration, as he tries many different styles of writing in his attempt to find a voice to protest this act of genocide. The novel contains fragmentary portions of a play, as well as another novel, Flaubert’s “The Legend...
...mirrors. “Beatrice and Virgil” is slyly autobiographical and self-referential. It begins by telling the story of an author named Henry and his struggles to get his latest opus published. He has written a dual book and essay that seek to bring the Holocaust out of the stultifying realm of historical narrative and first-hand accounts into the realm of fiction. According to Henry, it is only in fiction that the memory can live forever and continue to grow, thus saving the Holocaust from the indignity of being forgotten. Since it is clear that this...
Martel identifies Henry’s temporary loss of an authorial voice with that of the extinct animal and those of Holocaust victims. Martel also appears to take umbrage at the idea that the Holocaust must always remain a static concept. According to Henry, first-hand accounts of past suffering cannot accomplish the same emotional and intellectual challenge that a piece of fiction can. Martel’s book is therefore a revolutionary move written in protest against the reluctance to portray the Holocaust outside of non-fiction. Yet a simple look at the corpus of contemporary Western literature shows...
...book was written, he says, “not to say how films about the Holocaust should or should not be made,” but rather to explore the connection between profoundly affecting art and its profoundly affecting historical origin.Whether through the viewing of films like “None Shall Escape” or the reading of books like “Cinema and the Shoah,” that connection continues to demonstrate its lasting relevance...