Dear all,
My apologies, but in the previously circulated message about our research papers I got the venue for next week's talk wrong. See below for correct location!
Beate Müller (School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University):
Child Figures in Holocaust Fiction, or Aesthetic Solutions to the Cult of Authenticity
Location: Bedson Teaching Centre G34
Time/Date: 30th October 2008, 16:00 - 17:00
Holocaust fiction quite often features child figures in some form or other, whether as objects or subjects of narration. Their functions include providing an outsider's perspective (defamiliarization), representing innocence (Romantic tradition) and acting as catalysts for adult behaviour. Where children are the main focalizers, some additional factors come into play: a child's perception and/or voice gives writers the chance to exercise more creative freedom than an adult's narrative perspective would. In a field that is suspicious of fictitious fabrication, the conceit of the juvenile storyteller allows authors to be inventive so as to gain symbolic capital with the critics, while at the same time pandering to a sentimental readership without violating the normative veracity of Holocaust fiction's cult of authenticity.
ALL WELCOME!
Best wishes,
Beate
Dr Beate Müller
School of Modern Languages
University of Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
Tel.: 0191/2227512
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