Vulnerable Children, Disposable Mothers : Holocaust and Stolen Generations Memoirs of Childhood single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2008... 2008 Vulnerable Children, Disposable Mothers : Holocaust and Stolen Generations Memoirs of Childhood
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In recent years, historians have pioneered comparative research on the Holocaust and colonisation in Australia. This article seeks to demonstrate that a comparative reading of Stolen Generations and Holocaust memoirs can generate unique and challenging insights into the affective, material and psychological legacies of the assimilation of children across racial and ethnic divides. By placing Sarah Kofman's memoir, Rue Ordener, Rue Labat, into dialogue with versions of the Rabbit Proof Fence narrative, the article considers how the gendered trope of suffering mothers and vulnerable children has been used to mediate the trauma of childhood assimilation, and reveals aspects of this legacy that remain unspeakable in Australia.' (Author's abstract, 161)

Notes

  • The essay also discusses French feminist philosopher Sarah Kofman's Holocaust memoir Rue Ordener, Rue Labat (1994).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Life Writing vol. 5 no. 2 2008 Z1564224 2008 periodical issue 2008 pg. 161-184
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Trauma Texts Gillian Whitlock (editor), Kate Douglas (editor), London : Routledge , 2015 23056339 2015 anthology criticism

    'These chapters gathered from two special issues of the journal Life Writing take up a major theme of recent work in the Humanities: Trauma. Autobiography has had a major role to play in this ‘age of trauma’, and these essays turn to diverse contexts that have received little attention to date: partition narratives in India, Cambodian and Iranian rap, refugee letters from Nauru, graffiti in Tanzania, and the silent spaces of trauma in Chile and Guantanamo. The contexts and media of these autobiographical trauma texts are diverse, yet they are linked by attention to questions of who gets to speak/write/inscribe autobiographically and how and where and why, and how can silences in the wake of traumatic experiences be read. These essays deliberately set out to establish some new fields for research in trauma studies by reaching out to a broader global context, into various texts, media and artifacts, representing diverse histories with specific attention to different voices, bodies, memories and subjectivities. This collection addresses the contemporary circuits of trauma story, and the media and icons and narratives that carry trauma story to political effect and emotional affect.'

    Source: Publisher's blurb.

         London : Routledge , 2015     pg. 127-150
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Last amended 3 Mar 2009 15:40:37
161-184 Vulnerable Children, Disposable Mothers : Holocaust and Stolen Generations Memoirs of Childhoodsmall AustLit logo Life Writing
127-150 Vulnerable Children, Disposable Mothers : Holocaust and Stolen Generations Memoirs of Childhoodsmall AustLit logo
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