'The Black Book: John Berryman's Holocaust Requiem'
Boswell, MJ
(2007)
'The Black Book: John Berryman's Holocaust Requiem'.
In: Coleman, P and McGowan, P, (eds.)
After Thirty Falls: New Essays on John Berryman.
Studies in Literature, 38
.
Rodopi
, Amsterdam and New York
, 11 - 27 .
ISBN 978-9042022195
Abstract
This essay looks in detail at an unfinished cycle of Holocaust poems called The Black Book that was begun by the American poet John Berryman in 1948. The essay includes close readings of three published poems and analysis of unpublished material from the Berryman archive. It also considers Berryman's use of Holocaust testimony. Drawing on Susan Gubar's concept of 'proxy-witnessing', this essay argues that Berryman's unfinished cycle highlights some of the distinct challenges of Holocaust representation, occupying an uneasy middle ground between language and silence.
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