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EVA FIGES' WRITINGS: A JOURNEY THROUGH TRAUMA Silvia Pellicer-Ortín Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015. (by Merve Sarıkaya-Şen. Başkent University) [email protected]
What is most controversial about contemporary trauma fiction is the paradoxical nature of trauma representation and presentation. Dori Laub and Daniel Podell argue that "only a special kind of art, which we shall designate 'the art of trauma' can begin to achieve a representation of that which defies representation in both inner and outer experience" (1995: 992). Similarly, Shoshana Felman and Dori Laub cogently argue that, in accessing trauma, art and literature play a primary role "as a precocious mode of witnessing -of accessing reality- when all other modes of knowledge are precluded" (1991: xx). Silvia Pellicer-Ortín's Eva Figes' Writings: A Journey through Trauma (2015) is a book among many of the last few years that give much-needed attention to the representation of trauma and ways of coping with trauma. The book mainly focuses on the traumatic experiences of the Holocaust and ways of coping with trauma in Eva Figes' writings, especially in Winter Journey (1967), Konek Landing (1972), Little Eden: A Child at War (1978), Tales of Innocence and Experience: An Exploration (2004), and Journey to Nowhere: One Woman Looks for the Promised Land (2008). Pellicer-Ortín's distinct study has three main arguments. The first is that trauma studies are the perfect means to analyse the representation of individual and collective traumatic affects not only in fictional but also autobiographical works in which particular narrative techniques are used. The second is that the representation of the Holocaust and of Jewish identity in Figes' works address ethical and historical questions. Finally, the study argues that Figes' writings present us with the evolution of the forms of coping with trauma, which is germane to the alteration in the forms of representation. Pellicer-Ortín's book analyses Figes' writings in terms of the evolution of narrative techniques which resonate with different stages of traumatic affects; from acting out or repetition compulsion towards healing or working through. It is this approach of the book that makes it thought provoking and different from earlies studies of Figes' writings. Also, the wider grouping and inclusiveness of the...