READING RHETORIC THROUGH TRAUMA: CHARLOTTE DELBO'S AUSCHWITZ AND AFTER

Despite many clear points of connection, the field of rhetoric has largely remained silent on the notion of trauma, or overwhelming experience. I seek to establish the ways in which trauma simultaneously creates the exigency for rhetoric and complicates its task, using Holocaust survivor Charlotte Delbo's groundbreaking memoir <italic>Auschwitz and After</italic> as a case study. I argue, drawing upon the work of Susan J. Brison, that the externalization of her memories in narrative form allows Delbo to reclaim the self devastated by trauma; the text, however, shatters conventional expectations of what constitutes a coherent narrative, as set forth by Walter Fisher in his narrative paradigm. I conclude that <italic>Auschwitz and After</italic> is significant in that it enacts the trauma it seeks to transmit, a necessary approach in the face of the loss of reason and language engendered by the Holocaust.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Malsin, Mikaela Janet

• Charlotte Delbo

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/37259

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/37259