"To Tell the Story": Cultural Trauma and Holocaust Metanarrative

This article explores the aporia between the alleged inexplicability of the Holocaust and the wealth of narrative that has proceeded from the event in the years since 1945, proposing the existence of a generic Holocaust metanarrative that has been adopted and inscribed into Western cultural memory as the accepted framework for interpretation. Taking as a starting point the idea that culture itself has been somehow ‘ruptured’ in the wake of the Holocaust, this article explores the ways in which this rupture manifests itself, viewing the shattering impact of the Holocaust on the Western cultural imagination as macrocosmically comparable to the impact of psychic trauma on the individual survivor of the Holocaust. Just as an individual act of narration (the act of testimony) is believed to provide a cure for trauma, so a collective act of narration may hold the key to repairing the post-Holocaust cultural rupture. During the exploration of this process, it becomes apparent that cultural memory of the Holocaust is in fact informed by a metanarrative account that appears to offer the possibility of an engagement with the Holocaust, but which in fact acts as a screen between the event itself and the culture that would seek to memorialize it. Finally, this article explores the notion that the most appropriate narrative response is one that accepts the impossibility of its own position, rejecting the easy redemption offered by the assimilation of Holocaust metanarrative and instead inhabiting the dialectic between knowing and understanding that the Holocaust presents

L'Amérique en reconstruction

Charlotte Delbo : Amerika im Wiederaufbau. Die Städte der USA verfallen so schnell, dass man ein riesenhaftes Rettungsprogramm aufstellen musste. Es handelt sich um Stádte, die kaum 200 Jahre alt sind. Warum fallen die amerikanischen Städte so schnell dem Verfall anheim und wie belebt man sie wieder ?Шарлотт Дельбо : Америка в реконструкции. Города Соединенных Штатов разрушаются настолько быстро, что пришлось предпринять колоссальную программу работ для их спасенья. Речь идет о городах, которым только 200 лет. Почему американские города разрушаются и как их спасают?Charlotte Delbo : Rebuilding America. American cities are deteriorating so rapidly that a large-scale reconstruction program has had to be undertaken. Though these cities are only about two hundred years old, they are going to ruins and need to be saved, but how ?Charlotte Delbo : America en reconstrucción. Las ciudades de los Estados Unidos se degradan tan rápidamente que se ha hecho necesario emprender un gigantesco programa de salvación. Son ciudades cuya existencia no data sino de 200 anos. ¿ Por que las ciudades norteamericanas caen en ruina, y cómo son reanimadas ?Delbo Charlotte. L'Amérique en reconstruction. In: Revue française de sociologie, 1962, 3-2. pp. 173-179

Siegfried André, Itinéraires de contagions. Epidémies et idéologies.

Delbo Charlotte. Siegfried André, Itinéraires de contagions. Epidémies et idéologies.. In: Revue française de sociologie, 1961, 2-3. p. 222

Michel Andrée, Texier Geneviève, La condition de la femme française d'aujourd'hui.

Delbo Charlotte. Michel Andrée, Texier Geneviève, La condition de la femme française d'aujourd'hui.. In: Revue française de sociologie, 1964, 5-4. p. 472

Champigneulle Bernard, Ache Jean, L'architecture du XXe siècle.

Delbo Charlotte. Champigneulle Bernard, Ache Jean, L'architecture du XXe siècle.. In: Revue française de sociologie, 1963, 4-3. pp. 349-350

Gottmann Jean, Megalopolis : the urbanized Northeastern seabord of the United States.

Delbo Charlotte. Gottmann Jean, Megalopolis : the urbanized Northeastern seabord of the United States.. In: Revue française de sociologie, 1963, 4-1. pp. 90-91

Mounin Georges, Poésie et société.

Delbo Charlotte. Mounin Georges, Poésie et société.. In: Revue française de sociologie, 1963, 4-3. pp. 348-349

Gutkind Erwin A., The twilight of cities.

Delbo Charlotte. Gutkind Erwin A., The twilight of cities.. In: Revue française de sociologie, 1963, 4-4. Problèmes noirs. pp. 470-471

Duberge Jean, La psychologie sociale de l'impôt dans la France d'aujourd'hui.

Delbo Charlotte. Duberge Jean, La psychologie sociale de l'impôt dans la France d'aujourd'hui.. In: Revue française de sociologie, 1961, 2-3. p. 227

Greer Scott, The emerging city. Myth and reality.

Delbo Charlotte. Greer Scott, The emerging city. Myth and reality.. In: Revue française de sociologie, 1963, 4-2. p. 222