Discourse as a measure for reality: Explaining readership faith in false testimony

A.S.C. Faber

Research output: Contribution to ConferencePaperOther research output

Abstract

The Holocaust formed the backdrop for a great variety of narratives, ranging from testimonies of the likes of Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel to popular books like Sarah's Key and The Baker's Daughter. An interesting fringe phenomenon of the infinite amount of stories that address this subject is the false testimony: the type of narrative intended as a factual account but proven to be fabricated. An example of this is Misha Defonseca's Surviving with wolves, first published in 1997, recounting the story of a Jewish girl who goes looking after her parents, who presumably had been deported to a concentration camp in Eastern Europe. It was not until 2008 that it was finally proven that her memoir was largely fictitious. This paper will address the question how it was possible that Defonseca's audience considered her memoir as a truthful testimony for such a long period. In order to allow for a deeper insight to this question, I will first look at the text of Surviving with wolves, the ethos of the I-narrator and the interplay with the reader it presupposes. Subsequently, I place the story in context of what I consider to be an overarching Holocaust discourse: the vast conglomerate of stories that address the Holocaust, and the tropes and narratives strategies that are commonly used within this framework. The paper finally describes how Defonseca makes her testimony conceivable by making the course of her story fit in the normative constraints of Holocaust discourse, by confirming the pre-existing image the audience has of the historical period and thus living up to its expectations of the Holocaust experience.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 26 Feb 2016
EventNarratives of War - Huizinga Institute / University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam
Duration: 24 Feb 201626 Feb 2016
http://www.narratives-of-war.nl/

Conference

ConferenceNarratives of War
CityAmsterdam
Period24/02/1626/02/16
Internet address

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