The Unity of Subject and Object: Toys of Holocaust Survivors as Memory Transmitters in Children’s Literature
In this article, I discuss three picture books about the Holocaust produced by Israeli, Flemish and Polish authors: Bear and Fred (2016), Een pop voor Hannah [A doll for Hannah] (2018), and Mama zawsze wraca [Mum always comes back] (2020). Their young protagonists represent Holocaust survivors, and...
Salvato in:
| Pubblicato in: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/td, |
|---|---|
| Autore principale: | |
| Natura: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Lingua: | Anglais |
| Pubblicazione: |
Teksty Drugie
2024
|
| Soggetti: | |
| Accesso online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Riassunto: | In this article, I discuss three picture books about the Holocaust produced by Israeli, Flemish and Polish authors: Bear and Fred (2016), Een pop voor Hannah [A doll for Hannah] (2018), and Mama zawsze wraca [Mum always comes back] (2020). Their young protagonists represent Holocaust survivors, and the toys featured in these visual narratives represent their authentic playthings from that time, which today are put on display at the museums of Yad Vashem in Israel and Kazerne Dossin in Belgium. I examine the characteristic amalgamation of subject and object: the child protagonist and a toy. My aim is to explore these relationships, the representation of the agency of people and toys and the epistemic and commemorative value of these narratives. My theoretical framework draws on memory studies and thing theory, in which the being of objects is valued equally to the being of subjects and in which researchers argue for the agency of nonhuman materials, insisting that not only humans, but also objects, interact. |
|---|