Abstract
In her article "Figurative Language in Delbo's Auschwitz et après" Elizabeth Scheiber exeamines the use of figurative language in Charlotte Delbo's trilogy Auschwitz et après. Aucun de nous ne reviendra and shows how metaphors and symbols in the texts not only establish a means of imagining the concentration camps, but also how they create a community between author and reader. In Delbo's work, the ironic symbol of the stretcher as a means of conveying corpses gives the reader insight into the author's psyche at roll call as she witnesses the grim sight of the indignity of death in the concentrationary universe. Similarly, the metaphor of mannequins serves as a means of visualizing atrocity and understanding the author's reaction to it through the use of a visual cue borrowed from the ordinary world. In embracing the presence of figurative language in Holocaust literature, this article proposes that we must give up the myth of textual immediacy, but in return, we gain insight and understanding into the trauma of the survivors.
Recommended Citation
Scheiber, Elizabeth.
"Figurative Language in Delbo's Auschwitz et après."
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
11.1
(2009):
<https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1415>
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