Not long after the release of his first novel, Everything is Illuminated, critics and authors alike began showering Jonathan Safran Foer with both praise and disparagement for his postmodern style. Yet, this large body of criticism ignores the theoretical work taking place within Foer's fiction. This thesis attempts to fill this gap by highlighting specific aspects of Foer's theoretical work as it relates to the creation of meaning in a text and to explore what this work might imply for the broader literary community. Much of Foer's work toys with the capacity of language to express meaning, indulging in the playfulness of language throughout his work to highlight the place where at written language blurs the line between word and flesh, or language and experience. In this playfulness, Foer seems to assert that meaning is created in the space between language and experience through the act of metaphor. This theory of metaphor places the individual, the author, and the critic all in a creative position and the narrative content of Foer's works examines how this creative power is used by individuals to create a world of meaning out of experiences that seem to have none. In this way, Foer argues that the creative act of metaphor is a redemptive act—an act of saving one's self from the void. Such a conclusion can be applied to all who use the word to create, particularly authors and critics, wherein the creative act as well as the interpretive act become acts of redemption.

Cette étude propose d’explorer les œuvres de Jonathan Safran Foer, Daniel Mendelsohn, et Art Spiegelman, à travers la notion de trace, principe fondateur de l’esthétique et de l’éthique des écritures de l’après-Shoah. L’expérience lacunaire de ces « générations d’après » implique la présence d’une « postmémoire », dont le caractère « différé » sollicite le travail de l’imagination et informe la démarche créatrice de ces artistes et écrivains de l’après, qui reconstruisent le passé de leurs familles. Ces récits de la hantise sont marqués par une « mémoire trouée », et découlent souvent d’une rupture de la filiation, donc d’une défaillance de la transmission. Engagés dans une quête de savoir, narrateurs et protagonistes interrogent l’événement à partir de traces matérielles, ainsi qu’au travers de retours, réels et imaginaires, sur les lieux de l’origine. Ces récits sont composés de matériaux hétérogènes qui créent des ruptures visuelles, et sont informés par divers dérèglements temporels : désordres, disruptions chronologiques, latence et répétition – tous symptomatiques de l’après-coup du trauma. Ces textes postmémoriels posent enfin la question de l’éthique de la représentation. Performativité de la langue, fictionnalisation de l’Histoire, et enjeux de la transmission sont au cœur de ces œuvres en devenir, et interrogent l’éthique de la responsabilité de leurs auteurs, entre passation et travail de deuil. / This study explores the works of Jonathan Safran Foer, Daniel Mendelsohn, and Art Spiegelman through the notion of trace, the founding principle of the aesthetics and ethics of post-Holocaust writing. The incomplete knowledge of these “post-Holocaust generations” implies the presence of a “postmemory”, the “deferred” nature of which requires the imagination to be put to work and informs the creative approach of these post-Holocaust artists and writers, reconstructing their family’s past. These haunting narratives are marked by a “memory shot through with holes” and are often the result of a break in the bond of filiation, and therefore a hiatus of transmission. Having embarked on a quest for knowledge, narrators and protagonists examine the event through material traces, as well as real or imaginary returns to their places of origin. These narratives are made up of heterogeneous elements which create visual ruptures and are informed by various temporal disruptions: disorders, chronological breaks, latency and repetition – all symptomatic of the deferred action of trauma. Finally, these postmemorial texts raise the issue of the ethics of representation. The performativity of language, the fictionalization of History, and the issue of transmission are at the heart of these works in the making, and ethically question their authors’ responsibility, between transfer and the work of mourning.

What is the relationship between writing in the present and the traumatic historical events that form the subject of that writing? What narrative strategies do authors employ in order to negotiate the ethical and epistemological problems raised by this gap in time and experience? “Trauma theory” is undermined by clinical controversies and contradictory claims for “literal truth” and “incomprehensibility”. Similarly, the Holocaust has been considered inherently unrepresentable unless by those who witnessed it, leading to a false opposition between genres of “testimony” and “fiction”. A way out of these dead ends is to consider the role of the first-person narrator in contemporary Holocaust narratives. While use of this device risks an inappropriate level of identification with those whose experience is both extreme and unknowable, I argue that this problem may be resolved to an extent through “transgenerational empathy”, an approach to the past that is self-reflexive, incorporates ideas of time, memory and generations, and moves both towards and away from the victims of the past in a simultaneous gesture of proximity and distance. For this theory I draw on Dominick LaCapra’s definitions of empathy and “empathic unsettlement”, and on Hans-Georg Gadamer’s concept of the “fusion of horizons” between past and present. Transgenerational empathy involves giving equal weight to “memory” and “history”. An over-emphasis on memory leads to narratives that are merely identificatory, such as Anne Michaels’ Fugitive Pieces and Binjamin Wilkomirski’s Fragments. In contrast, W. G. Sebald’s use of a narrative persona in The Emigrants and Austerlitz enables transgenerational empathy in narrative by simultaneously imposing layers of distance while establishing close personal connection. Similarly, Jonathan Safran Foer’s third-generation aesthetic of “post-postmemory” in Everything is Illuminated uses a “dual persona” device to foreground empathically the abyss at the heart of any attempt to recapture the past. My analysis of these authors draws on the writings of Gillian Rose, Paul Ricoeur, Marianne Hirsch and Jacques Derrida. However, the concept of “transgenerational empathy” would benefit from further research, both in terms of its “temporal dimension” and the use of narrative personae by other contemporary authors such as Philip Roth.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on October 23, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-13T12:03:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 000478018-Texto+Completo-0.pdf: 15638701 bytes, checksum: 5dadbe6edaac495026cdbf2bffb36b93 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016 / This thesis studies the works of Brazilian author Valêncio Xavier and North American author Jonathan Safran Foer, both of which, through narratives composed by newspaper articles, drawings, photographs, maps, flip books and by a peculiar textual disposition, transcend the traditional notion of romance mostly by incorporating other artistic manifestations, which allows them to be denominated as hybrid and interartistic narratives. Discussing these authors’ works consists on using alternative and current theories in order to analyze the intersection between word and image. Such contemporary and profane narratives, if they are considered through the concepts of Giorgio Agambem, subvert and illuminate the book as object and support, restoring the playful aspect of reading and the pleasure of the unexpected in each page. Hence, the aforementioned texts are analyzed as representatives of a narrative that is contemporary because it profanes themes and supports and, consequently, analyzed through questions related to visual narratives and interartistic poetics, to fictional games and intertextual collage and still, and through the reflection on the themes shared by them: the re-elaboration of memory as well as the joys and sorrows of childhood and old age. The narratives Minha mãe morrendo e o menino mentido, Meu sétimo dia: uma novella rébus, “Rremembranças de menina de rua morta nua”, “Maciste no inferno” and “Mistério mágico”, written by Valêncio Xavier and the novels Everything is illuminated and Extremely loud & incredibly close, the unclassifiable Tree of Codes and the short story “If the Aging Magician Should Begin to Believe”, by Jonathan Safran Foer are discussed in order to highlight their similarities in terms of formal composition strategies. Just as much as Valêncio Xavier and Jonathan Safran Foer profane themes and supports, the present thesis also aims to subvert the subjectile it deals with in a certain way, playing and interacting with the works and authors, since, as Roland Barthes once said, there’s no other way of dealing with authors and their works other than writing with them. / Esta tese estuda as obras do autor brasileiro Valêncio Xavier e do autor estadunidense Jonathan Safran Foer, que, a partir de narrativas compostas por artigos de jornal, desenhos, fotografias, mapas, flip books e por uma disposição textual peculiar ultrapassam a concepção tradicional do que se entende como romance ao incorporarem, sobretudo, outras manifestações artísticas, o que permite que sejam denominadas como narrativas híbridas e interartísticas. Discutir as obras de Valêncio Xavier e as de Jonathan Safran Foer consiste na utilização de teorias tradicionais e contemporâneas para a análise da intersecção entre palavra e imagem. Tais narrativas contemporâneas e profanadoras, se pensadas a partir de conceitos de Giorgio Agamben, subvertem e iluminam o livro enquanto objeto e suporte, restituindo o aspecto lúdico à leitura e o prazer do inesperado a cada página. Desse modo, os textos desses escritores são analisados aqui como representantes de uma literatura que é contemporânea por ser profanadora de temas e de suportes e, consequentemente, analisadas a partir de questões relacionadas às narrativas visuais e às poéticas interartísticas, aos jogos ficcionais e da colagem intertextual e, ainda, a partir da reflexão sobre os temas que compartilham: a reelaboração da memória, as alegrias e tristezas infantis e senis. As narrativas Minha mãe morrendo e o menino mentido, Meu sétimo dia: uma novella rébus, “Rremembranças de menina de rua morta nua”, “Maciste no inferno” e “Mistério mágico”, de Valêncio Xavier, e os romances Everything is illuminated e Extremely loud & incredibly close, o inclassificável Tree of Codes e o conto “If the Aging Magician Should Begin to Believe”, de Jonathan Safran Foer, são discutidos a fim de se evidenciar as suas semelhanças nas estratégias formais de composição. Assim como Valêncio Xavier e Jonathan Safran Foer profanam temas e suportes, esta tese também objetiva subverter em certa medida o subjétil com que lida, jogando e dialogando com as obras e os autores estudados, pois, como afirma Roland Barthes, não há como se tratar de obras e de autores sem escrever com eles.

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Submitted by PPG Letras (letraspg@pucrs.br) on 2018-03-12T13:20:51Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Disserta??o_ Bianca Diniz.pdf: 716191 bytes, checksum: 1e337af72b240add4a0a1811a204dcbc (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tatiana Lopes (tatiana.lopes@pucrs.br) on 2018-03-19T11:43:14Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Disserta??o_ Bianca Diniz.pdf: 716191 bytes, checksum: 1e337af72b240add4a0a1811a204dcbc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-03-19T11:50:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Disserta??o_ Bianca Diniz.pdf: 716191 bytes, checksum: 1e337af72b240add4a0a1811a204dcbc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-01-11 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior - CAPES / Some historians agree that the terrorist attacks of September 11 marked the beginning of the 21st century. If the twentieth century was marked by two world wars, the 21st century was no better than its predecessor in terms of horror and violence. Consequently, art couldn?t fail to be contaminated by all of this. Thus the postmodern literature emerges, which resumes past tragedies in order to shed a new light on the catastrophes of the present. One of the most representative works of this new literary movement in the 21st century is Extremely loud and incredibly close, Jonathan Safran Foer? second novel, published for the first time in 2005. In order to clarify the relationship between Literature, History and traumatic events, this work aims to examine the way in which the North American author represents these facts and their subjective consequences in the novel Extremely loud and incredibly close, based on concepts of psychology, history and literary theory. / Alguns historiadores apontam que os atentados terroristas de 11 de setembro marcaram o in?cio do s?culo XXI. Se o s?culo XX foi marcado por duas guerras mundiais, o s?culo XXI n?o deixa nada a desejar em termos de horror e viol?ncia quando comparado a seu antecessor. Consequentemente, a arte n?o poderia deixar de ser contaminada por tudo isso. Assim, surge a literatura p?s-moderna, que retoma trag?dias passadas a fim de lan?ar uma nova luz nas cat?strofes do presente. Uma das obras representativas desse novo movimento liter?rio no s?culo XXI ? Extremely loud and incredibly close ? em portugu?s, Extremamente alto e incrivelmente perto ?, segundo romance do escritor Jonathan Safran Foer, publicado pela primeira vez em 2005. Com o objetivo de elucidar a rela??o entre a Literatura, a Hist?ria e os eventos traum?ticos, este trabalho busca examinar a maneira como o autor norte-americano realiza a representa??o desses acontecimentos e suas consequ?ncias subjetivas no romance Extremamente alto e incrivelmente perto, tendo como base conceitos da psicologia, da hist?ria e da teoria da literatura.

Located on the interstice between Media Studies and Literary Theory, my dissertation explores the emerging genre of photo-fiction -- literary works that incorporate photographic images into the manuscripts -- and its impact on the commemoration of traumatic historical events. I argue that the way we represent and remember historical traumas is dependent on the media in which images emanating from these events are produced and circulated; put differently, the context of these images shapes our engagement with them. By examining literary works that incorporate photographs into their printed text, I explore textual and visual representations of historical trauma (such as the two World Wars, the Balkan wars of the Nineties, and 9/11). The authors whose works I analyze (Jonathan Safran Foer, Aleksandar Hemon, W.G. Sebald) grant photography a new status: the inserted images transcend traditional “authentification strategies” and draw attention to the convergence of realism and indexicality featured by these photographs. These authors’ employment of photographs from various media (television, internet, printed press, encyclopedias and archives) questions not only the technical qualities of each medium but the veracity and accuracy of evidence. Photography’s capacity to secure and store information is put radically into question, not only because the new contexts of these images, but because of the manipulations and reconfigurations the movement between media has brought about. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s concept of the literary montage, I suggest that literature provides an apt arena to examine the reception to images. By literary montage I mean the opening up of a new dimension in which visual and verbal elements are juxtaposed, and the disjunctions and gaps between them encourage readers to become active participants in the creation of narrative. Photo-fiction’s interplay between images and texts therefore not only sheds light on the mechanics of representation, but demand from its audience to reflect on the way we interpret and respond to historical traumas in a society saturated with images.

Located on the interstice between Media Studies and Literary Theory, my dissertation explores the emerging genre of photo-fiction -- literary works that incorporate photographic images into the manuscripts -- and its impact on the commemoration of traumatic historical events. I argue that the way we represent and remember historical traumas is dependent on the media in which images emanating from these events are produced and circulated; put differently, the context of these images shapes our engagement with them. By examining literary works that incorporate photographs into their printed text, I explore textual and visual representations of historical trauma (such as the two World Wars, the Balkan wars of the Nineties, and 9/11). The authors whose works I analyze (Jonathan Safran Foer, Aleksandar Hemon, W.G. Sebald) grant photography a new status: the inserted images transcend traditional “authentification strategies” and draw attention to the convergence of realism and indexicality featured by these photographs. These authors’ employment of photographs from various media (television, internet, printed press, encyclopedias and archives) questions not only the technical qualities of each medium but the veracity and accuracy of evidence. Photography’s capacity to secure and store information is put radically into question, not only because the new contexts of these images, but because of the manipulations and reconfigurations the movement between media has brought about. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s concept of the literary montage, I suggest that literature provides an apt arena to examine the reception to images. By literary montage I mean the opening up of a new dimension in which visual and verbal elements are juxtaposed, and the disjunctions and gaps between them encourage readers to become active participants in the creation of narrative. Photo-fiction’s interplay between images and texts therefore not only sheds light on the mechanics of representation, but demand from its audience to reflect on the way we interpret and respond to historical traumas in a society saturated with images.

Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close stands out from the nationalistic-toned American “9/11 novels”. It depicts the story of a young boy and his grandparents who are left with the aftermath of losing a loved one in the attack on the twin towers. However, the complexity of the three main characters and the depth of their individual and common traumas make the novel go beyond the usual nationalistic 9/11 narrative and focus on the personal and, consequently, the national trauma.  This essay analyses the possibility of coping with and recovering from trauma through communication. Dominick LaCapra’s trauma theory notions of “working through” and “acting out”, as well as other traumatic memory research highlight the necessity of utterance in order to overcome trauma and to attempt an existence beyond it. In the instance of the three traumatized characters of the novel, the confessional language is entangled, broken and sometimes muted. This makes the recovery difficult in the case of the grandparents, almost impossible for the character of Grandpa. When it comes to the young boy, Oskar Schell, a more successful communication seems to open up the possibility of mental healing. These personal traumas are a reflection of a broader American trauma where an obsessive “rememoration” of the September 11 events and one-sided, revenge loaded public discourse do not seem to facilitate the national healing process. On all these levels, personal and community, the need and the difficult attempt to communicate the trauma of 9/11 does not necessarily grant recovery from it, but it facilitates a desired “working though” process.