Grotesque ambivalence : melancholy and mourning in the prose work of Albert Drach / Mary Cosgrove.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cosgrove, Mary.

Series:

Conditio Judaica

Conditio Judaica, 0941-5866 ; 49

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ambivalence in literature.

Melancholy in literature.

Drach, Albert, 1902-1995--Criticism and interpretation.

Drach, Albert.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (237 p.)

Edition:

Reprint 2012

Place of Publication:

Tübingen : M. Niemeyer, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Die erste englischsprachige Untersuchung der Prosa von Albert Drach (1902-1995) arbeitet die Originalität von Drachs Autobiografie im Kontext gegenwärtiger Holocaust-Diskurse heraus. Dabei geht es um das Verhältnis zwischen Drachs komisch-grotesker Sprache und dem melancholischen Darstellungsmodus in der Holocaust-Autobiografie. Drachs Prosa legt die totalitären Mechanismen seiner Zeit zugleich leidenschaftlich und kritisch bloß.

The focus of this volume is the prose work of the Austrian-Jewish writer Albert Drach (1902-1995). The author explores Drach's critique of totalitarian culture by examining his representations of power and powerlessness, identity and difference, along with cultural processes of exclusion. Drawing on areas as diverse as psychoanalysis, the grotesque and post-colonial theory, this study identifies a significant discursive difference between Drach's shorter fictional prose and the Holocaust trilogy. Drach's highly original linguistic dexterity, his much-discussed 'protocol style', offers a sophisticated critique of the relationship between power, insubordination and capitulation. This is the first English language study dedicated to the complex prose of Albert Drach. It is of interest to students and scholars of Austrian literature, German-Jewish literature as well as Exile and Holocaust Studies.

Contents:

Front matter

Content

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. The Grotesque: Topography of Transgression, Morphology of Emptiness

Chapter 3. Grotesque Discourses: Mourning and Melancholia

Chapter 4. Floating Documents

Chapter 5. Ex-centrics, Evil Eyes and Missing Persons: The Optics of Mimicry in Das Goggelbuch

Chapter 6. »Z. Z.« das ist die Zwischenzeit: Paralysis of the Powerless

Chapter 7. The Time of Evil Children

Conclusion Concentration Camps of the Mind and the Child in Flight

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgements

Notes:

Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Dublin, 2002.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9783110934205

3110934205

OCLC:

865329604