The French novelist Sylvie Germain spent 6 years in Czechoslovakia before, during, and after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that ended four decades of oppressive totalitarian rule in that country. As a result of her st...The French novelist Sylvie Germain spent 6 years in Czechoslovakia before, during, and after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that ended four decades of oppressive totalitarian rule in that country. As a result of her stay, Germain produced four texts that are imbued with painful Czech stories and memories of both the Holocaust and the Communist era. This study examines the inscription of Germain＇ s encounter with the （Czech） other into her writing through tropes of exile and dispossession, of the suffering or wounded body, and of illness. Although Germain did not experience either the Holocaust or totalitarianism at first hand, and has moreover no claim to a Czech heritage, I posit that her work can nonetheless be interpreted as a transnational witness to the suffering of the （Czech） other. Using theories of the self and other, as well as theories of exile and of the narration of illness, I discuss how Germain＇s work negotiates the fine line between an appropriation of the stories of the other and an ethical responsibility to respond to other stories of pain.展开更多
文摘The French novelist Sylvie Germain spent 6 years in Czechoslovakia before, during, and after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that ended four decades of oppressive totalitarian rule in that country. As a result of her stay, Germain produced four texts that are imbued with painful Czech stories and memories of both the Holocaust and the Communist era. This study examines the inscription of Germain＇ s encounter with the （Czech） other into her writing through tropes of exile and dispossession, of the suffering or wounded body, and of illness. Although Germain did not experience either the Holocaust or totalitarianism at first hand, and has moreover no claim to a Czech heritage, I posit that her work can nonetheless be interpreted as a transnational witness to the suffering of the （Czech） other. Using theories of the self and other, as well as theories of exile and of the narration of illness, I discuss how Germain＇s work negotiates the fine line between an appropriation of the stories of the other and an ethical responsibility to respond to other stories of pain.
