The Berlin Shadow: Living with the Ghosts of the Kindertransport
- Submitting institution
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The University of Essex
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 2814
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
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- Publisher
- Scribner
- ISBN
- 978-1471167270
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- August
- Year of publication
- 2020
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- The Berlin Shadow extends Lichtenstein’s research into the tragic form, connecting it to his family’s personal history and more widely to the way the Holocaust is remembered and acknowledged through public and private monuments. The book researches some of the ways in which the transmission of trauma from one generation to another occurs, (the Second Generation) what its effects are, how it impacts itself upon both the psychological and the physical. The book looks at the inheritance of ‘survivors’ guilt’ and suggests that monuments provide sites of mourning that help mitigate the transmission of trauma.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The Berlin Shadow investigates whether elements of classical tragedy can be used in a prose autofiction that investigates the Second Generation’s connection to the Holocaust. The book offers a discussion about possible ways in which the Holocaust can be remembered and mourned. Explicit links are made to two different key ideas which are (1) to W. G. Sebald’s work (particularly Austerlitz) and to (2) Jean Amèry’s work. The book contemplates Amèry ’s position—whether a moral reaction to the survival of the Holocaust is suicide—and makes reference to Hannah Arendt’s position.
The psychogeographical research process included making a journey with his father from Wales to Berlin. They retraced the route of his father’s escape from Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport in 1939. Later, five times, Lichtenstein re-enacted the journey his father took, walking from the front door of his Berlin address, carrying a suitcase to the train station he left from, following the route to Liverpool Street via Amsterdam and the Hook of Holland.
The insight reached is that the tragic form can act as a container in which the deepest catastrophes can be looked at safely, helping the writer and reader to explore emotions and ideas that might otherwise be overwhelming. The significant impact of this research is demonstrated by the extensive and immediate investment in the book by publishers across Europe. Scribner (UK hardback and audiobook August 2020) and Little, Brown (US 15 Dec 2020) published it, followed by: (‘Kristeligt Dagblads Forlag’, Denmark, Oct. 2020, (Skyggen Fra Berlin); Suhrkamp, Germany, (Spring 2021 - Zuruch Nach Berlin); ‘JC Lattés’, France; ‘Atlas Contact’, Netherlands (Spring 2021); ‘Mondadori’, Italy (Spring 2021). It was selected as a book of the year 2020 in Denmark (Jylands Posten) and shortlisted for The Slightly Foxed First Biography Prize 2020.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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