Living in the Past, Living with the Ghosts: Trauma and Postmemory in Jonathan Lichtenstein’s Memory

Yıl 2022, Sayı: 34, 39 - 52, 29.06.2022

Tuğba Aygan

https://doi.org/10.26650/jtcd.2022.1108426

Öz

The 'memory boom' has promoted a wide array of plays among a large amount of literary output in Western literature. Among these, Jonathan Lichtenstein’s 2006 play Memory is an aptly named memory play. Inspired by the memories of the playwright’s father, the play interweaves three stories: one set in 1933, when the Nazis took power in Berlin; the second in East Berlin, 1990, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall; and the last in Bethlehem, 2006, as the Apartheid Wall was rising. Whilst connecting these separate stories at the intersection of memory, this paper seeks to address a traumatized and conflicted relation to the past, and drawing on established trauma theorist Dominick LaCapra’s terms ‘acting out’ and ‘working through’, it discusses how traumatic memories and one’s relation to them shape the present. The study then reflects on Marianne Hirsch’s term ‘postmemory’ as manifested in Memory as well as Lichtenstein’s life.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Postmemory, trauma, acting out, Holocaust drama, memory

Geçmişte Yaşamak, Hayaletlerle Yaşamak: Jonathan Lichtenstein’ın Memory Adlı Oyununda Travma ve Postmemory

Öz

The memory boom has promoted a wide array of plays among a large amount of literary output in Western literature. Among these, Jonathan Lichtenstein’s 2006 play Memory is an aptly named memory play. Inspired by the memories of the playwright’s father, the play interweaves three stories: one set in 1933, when the Nazis took power in Berlin; the second in East Berlin, 1990, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall; and the last in Bethlehem, 2006, as the Apartheid Wall was rising. Whilst connecting these seperate stories at the intersection of memory, this paper seeks to address a traumatized and conflicted relation to the past, and drawing on established trauma theorist Dominick LaCapra’s terms ‘acting out’ and ‘working through’, it discusses how traumatic memories and one’s relation to them shape the present. The study then reflects on Marianne Hirsch’s term ‘postmemory’ as manifested in Memory as well as Lichtenstein’s life.

Anahtar Kelimeler

travma, postmemory, Jonathan Lichtenstein

Kaynakça

• Balaev, Michelle. “Trends in Literary Trauma Theory.” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal 41(2) (2008): 149-66. google scholar
• Bar-Tal, Daniel and Cehajic-Clancy, Sabina. “From Collective Victimhood to Social Reconciliation: Outlining a Conceptual Framework.” In War, Community, and Social Change: Collective Experiences in the Former Yugoslavia. Edited by D. Spini, G. Elcheroth, and D. Corkalo Biruski, 125-136. New York: Springer, 2014. google scholar
• Carlson, Marvin. The Haunted Stage: The Theatre as Memory Machine. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003. google scholar
• Caruth, Cathy. Trauma: Explorations in Memory. Baltimore: JHU Press, 1995. google scholar
• Caruth, Cathy. Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History. Baltimore: JHU Press, 1996. google scholar
• Fisher, Philip. “Memory.” British Theatre Guide, 2008. Accessed on 12 June, 2021. https://www. britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/memoryPF-rev google scholar
• Herman, Judith. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence— From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. New York: Basic Books, 1997. google scholar
• Hirsch, Marianne. “Family Pictures: Maus, Mourning, and Post-Memory.” Discourse 15(2), Special Issue: The Emotions, Gender, and the Politics of Subjectivity 8 (1992): 3-29. google scholar
• Hirsch, Marianne. “The Generation of Postmemory.” Poetics Today 29(1) (2008): 103-28. google scholar
• Kahanoff, Maya. “Collective Trauma, Recognition and Reconciliation in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” In Recognition as Key for Reconciliation: Israel, Palestine, and Beyond. Edited by Yoram Meital and Paula Rayman, 59-92. Boston: Brill, 2018. google scholar
• LaCapra, Dominick. Representing the Holocaust: History, Theory, Trauma. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996. google scholar
• Langer, Lawrence L. “Memory’s Time: Chronology and Duration in Holocaust Testimonies.” In Admitting the Holocaust: Collected Essays 16. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. google scholar
• Lichtenstein, Jonathan. “Writing Through the Silences of a Lost Family.” Literary Hub. Accessed on 8 June, 2021. https://lithub.com/writing-through-the-silences-of-a-lost-family-history/ google scholar
• Lichtenstein, Jonathan. Memory. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2008. google scholar
• Lichtenstein, Jonathan. The Berlin Shadow: Living with the Ghosts of Kindertransport. London: Scribner, 2020. google scholar
• McCumber, John. “The Holocaust as Master Rupture: Foucault, Fackenheim, and ‘Postmodernity’.” In Postmodernism and the Holocaust. Edited by Alan Milchman and Alan Rosenberg, 239-64. Atlanta: Brill Ropodi, 1998. google scholar
• Montville, Joseph V. “The Healing Function in Political Conflict Resolution.” In Conflict Resolution Theory and Practice Integration and Application. Edited by Dennis J. D. Sandole and Hugo van der Merwe, 11227. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1993. google scholar
• Rokem, Freddie. Performing History: Theatrical Representations of the Past in Contemporary Theatre. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2000. google scholar
• Santner, Eric. “History Beyond The Pleasure Principle: Some Thoughts on the Representation of Trauma.” In Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the “Final Solution”. Edited by Saul Friedlander, 143-54. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992. google scholar
• Staub, Ervin. “Reconciliation after Genocide, Mass Killing, or Intractable Conflict: Understanding the Roots of Violence, Psychological Recovery and Steps toward a General Theory.” Political Psychology 27 871 (2006): 867-94. google scholar
• van der Kolk, Bessel and van der Hart, Otto. “The Intrusive Past: The Flexiblity of Memory and Engraving of Trauma.” In Trauma: Explorations in Memory. Edited by Cathy Caruth, 158-182. Baltimore: JHU Press, 1995. google scholar
• Whitehead, Anne. Trauma Fiction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004. google scholar
• Williams, Tom. “Memory.” Chicago Critic. Accessed on 10 June, 2021. https://chicagocritic.com/memory/ google scholar