Random destinations : escaping the Holocaust and starting life anew / Lilian R. Furst.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Furst, Lilian R.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

English fiction.

Jewish refugees in literature.

English-speaking countries--In literature.

English-speaking countries.

Physical Description:

xviii, 213 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Summary:

In Random Destinations, Lilian R. Furst examines how novels and short stories portray those who managed to escape from Central Europe in the 1930s following the rise of Nazism. These refugees faced many concrete and psychological problems at their random destinations: language acquisition, assimilation into an unfamiliar community, the loss of their homeland, and, above all, the need to reshape their identities. Their personal struggles are contextualized within their historical situation, both global and specific to their new locale. The book argues that fiction, by taking ordinary escapees' difficulties into account, paradoxically offers a subtler and truer picture than sociological studies that have tended to foreground the successes of a few outstanding individuals.

Contents:

To the Reader xi

Introduction: "Shards from the Explosion" 1

London

1 "Twin Souls": Anita Brookner, The Latecomers (1990) 21

2 "The Hidden Abyss": Gillian Tindall, To the City (1987) 37

3 A "Success Story": Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, "A Birthday in London" (1963) 49

British Provinces

4 "Try to Forget": Maureen Duffy, Change (1987) 63

5 "To Serve under the Chimney": W.G. Sebald, "Max Ferber," The Emigrants (1992) 73

New York

6 "The Great Loss": Bernard Malamud, "The German Refugee" (1963) 91

7 "An Abundance of Happiness": Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, In Search of Love and Beauty (1983) 101

8 "A Bizarre Double Game": Isaac Bashevis Singer, Shadows on the Hudson (1998) 119

U.S. Provinces

9 "Can You Harmonize?": Carol Ascher, The Flood (1987) 135

10 "An Inconsequential Appendix and Coda": Randall Jarrell, "Constance and the Rosenbaums" in Pictures from an Institution (1954) 149

11 "Accepting-but not Accepted": Anita Desai, Baumgartner's Bombay (1988) 163

12 The "Hanger-On": Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, "An Indian Citizen" (1968) 175

Conclusion: "A Bit in the Middle of Nowhere" 187.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [203]-207) and index.

ISBN:

1403969752

OCLC:

60550757