Representing the Unpresentable: Traumatic Realism in the Holocaust Narratives

Abstract

Aims: This paper aims to critically examine the representational challenges posed by the Holocaust as both a historical and cultural trauma. It investigates the tensions between Realist and Anti-Realist narrative modes and introduces Michael Rothberg’s concept of Traumatic Realism as a mediating framework capable of addressing the complexities of Holocaust representation.

Methodology and Approach: The study adopts a comparative literary analysis, drawing on Rothberg’s theoretical model to evaluate how Traumatic Realism integrates the structured coherence of Realism with the fragmented, non-linear characteristics of Anti-Realism. Two key texts are analysed as case studies: Ruth Kluger’s Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered and Charlotte Delbo’s Auschwitz and After.

Outcome: The analysis reveals that both Kluger’s and Delbo’s narratives embody the principles of Traumatic Realism by simultaneously acknowledging the incomprehensibility of Holocaust experiences and maintaining a tether to historical specificity.

Conclusion and Suggestions: The paper concludes that Traumatic Realism offers a nuanced and ethically sensitive framework for representing the Holocaust, one that avoids the pitfalls of both reductive Realism and excessive abstraction. It suggests that future representations of genocide and mass trauma should continue to adopt hybrid approaches that can accommodate contradiction, fragmentation, and affective resonance while remaining historically grounded.