Edith Bruck in the Mirror

Philip Balma

Description

Author of more than thirteen books and several volumes of poetry, screenwriter, and director, Edith Bruck is one of the leading literary voices in Italy, attracting increasing attention in the English-speaking world not least for her powerful Holocaust testimony, which is often compared with the work of her contemporaries Primo Levi and Giorgio Bassani. Born in Hungary in 1932, she was deported with her family to the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Dachau, Christianstadt, Landsberg, and Bergen-Belsen, where she lost both her parents and a brother. After the war, she traveled widely until 1954 when she settled in Rome. She has lived there ever since. This important new study is motivated by a desire to better understand and situate Bruck's art as well as to advance (and, when necessary, to revise) the critical discourse on her considerable and eclectic body of work. As such, it underscores and analyzes the intermedial nature of her contributions to contemporary Italian culture, which should no longer be understood merely in terms of her willingness to revisit the subject of the Holocaust on the printed page or the silver screen. It also includes previously unpublished interviews with the author. The book will be of broad interest to scholars and students of Jewish (especially Holocaust) studies, Italian literature, film studies, women's studies, and postcolonial culture.
Contents

Foreword by Edith Bruck

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Fictional Transitions: Blurring the Boundaries between Life and Art

2 Reciprocal Influences between Literature and Cinema

3 Reflections on the “Minor” Poetry of a Successful Novelist: Edith Bruck in the Mirror

Conclusions: Jewish Identity in Italy and “The Two Paths”

Appendix One: Interview with Edith Bruck, Translated by Elizabeth Hellman

Appendix Two: When Art and Life Imitate Each Other: A Conversation with Edith Bruck, Translated by Erika Brownlee

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• Jewish

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612493343
• Langue: English

Extrait

Edith Bruck in the Mirror
Fictional Transitions and Cinematic Narratives
Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies
Zev Garber, Editor
Los Angeles Valley College
Edith Bruck in the Mirror
Fictional Transitions and Cinematic Narratives
Philip Balma
Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana
Copyright 2014 by Purdue University. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Balma, Philip, 1976- author.
Edith Bruck in the Mirror: Fictional Transitions and Cinematic Narratives / Philip Balma.

pages cm.-(Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-55753-687-7 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-1-61249-333-6 (epdf)
ISBN 978-1-61249-334-3 (epub)
1. Bruck, Edith-Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
PQ4862.R7Z55 2014 853 .914-dc23
2013042315
Cover photograph courtesy of Federica Valabrega.
To Katy
Contents
Foreword by Edith Bruck
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Fictional Transitions: Blurring the Boundaries between Life and Art
2 Reciprocal Influences between Literature and Cinema
3 Reflections on the Minor Poetry of a Successful Novelist: Edith Bruck in the Mirror
Conclusions: Jewish Identity in Italy and The Two Paths
Appendix One: Interview with Edith Bruck Translated by Elizabeth Hellman
Appendix Two: When Art and Life Imitate Each Other: A Conversation with Edith Bruck. Translated by Erika Brownlee
Bibliography
Index
Foreword
In 1945, immediately after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, OK was the first expression in English that I learned. It s the language in which Philip Balma has written and is now publishing this volume on my life works. In the years that followed, which were anything but easy, as I am an autodidact, I had made some progress, though unfortunately it was not enough for me to even be able to appreciate or evaluate Philip s translations of my poems, but I trust him, I trust his clear vision, and I trust his pure heart. I ve known him for seven years, I know that he is scrupulous, and I hope that some of the human warmth we shared beyond the words may be found within these pages. Like the ethical, moral, and testimonial value of my life as a pilgrim saved by chance, who landed in Italy where, due to an internal need, and adopting the language, I had begun to write while sitting on a half-empty trunk.
Perhaps I have written the same book over and over, both in verse and in prose, and maybe I ve made the same film both for the silver screen and for television; the things I have lived through, that I ve seen, or those which have struck me, stimulated me to the point of human and social identification and participation.
I can only be grateful to Philip Balma who in turn has become a witness himself. It s important and comforting for me to know, especially with respect to the young, that the turmoil of my existence, never surrendered, has not been useless, and certainly never hopeless-not even in total darkness, where there was and still remains a light, which has now passed into Balma s hands, and those of his editor.
Thank you, Edith Bruck
Acknowledgments
Inasmuch as this project symbolically began a decade ago as part of my research for the PhD in Italian Studies, I d like to thank the members of my dissertation committee at Indiana University: my director, Andrea Ciccarelli, as well as Peter Bondanella, Massimo Scalabrini, and Michael Berkvam. Their guidance and support during my years in graduate school was both generous and indispensable. I am also forever indebted to Edith Bruck for her kindness and availability, without which much of this project would have been based on conjectures instead of facts.
For her infinite patience and wisdom in clarifying the intricacies of the English language, I must thank my wife, Katy Balma, whose drive and work ethic have been a constant source of inspiration. Her loving encouragement has been instrumental in keeping me focused and dedicated to this project over the span of many years. Having embraced the role of unofficial reader and copyeditor throughout all the stages of preparation of this manuscript with altruism and devotion, she played a fundamentally important role in its completion and revision.
To all the members of my family, I owe a debt of gratitude for always believing in my abilities, even when I did not. Your love and kindness are my most precious resource, one that I have always been able to rely on.
For supporting and facilitating my research in more ways than I can count, I must thank Fabio Benincasa and Marco Pacioni. Special thanks go to my friend and colleague Giovanni Spani, and also to Clementina Ricci from the University of Siena, Eleonora Buonocore from Yale University, Gabriele Scarpelli from the University of Florence, and to Tommaso Tancredi, Emilio Busto, and Kacie Matwijszyn. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Michael Young from the University of Connecticut, who serves as the subject area librarian for Italian Studies. These friends and fellow scholars have helped me to challenge myself and to never lose my passion for the written word and the moving image.
For their kindness and professionalism I am indebted to the staff of the CDEC (the Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation) in Milan, in particular to Michele Sarfatti. Furthermore, I want to acknowledge the courtesy and work ethic displayed by the staff of the Biblioteca Comunale-Palazzo Sormani (also in Milan), as well as the employees of the FST Mediateca Regionale Toscana Film Commission in Florence. A portion of my research on the subject of Gillo Pontecorvo was conducted at the Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington, and was made possible thanks to the Everett Helm Visiting Fellowship. This project was also facilitated in part by a Junior Faculty Summer Fellowship and a generous grant funded by the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Connecticut-Storrs, as well as research account funded by the University of Notre Dame between 2006 and 2008.
Last, but not least, I d like to acknowledge Charles Watkinson, the director of Purdue University Press, Zev Garber, the editor of the Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies series, and Becki Corbin. A special word of thanks also goes to the anonymous readers whose feedback was instrumental in helping me to think critically about my own work.
Introduction

By talking about Auschwitz, I am talking about today, about what happens today in Europe and the world, about diversity, and about the culture of the other that we don t know, and so we fear, and maybe we discriminate and we exploit. I believe . . . that multiculturalism is a treasure for us, and we should learn to live together with mutual respect and equal rights.
-Edith Bruck, Interview 1

The term Italophone literature refers to an emerging body of literary works written in the Italian language by first generation immigrants and, in the last few years, by the second generation. Its most striking element is the plurality of its voices and points of view. Italy has, in fact, one of the largest pools of diverse immigrant communities, with approximately 3 million foreigners present in 2006 coming from regions of the world as different as Romania, Albania, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, China, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Ecuador, and Peru. The multicultural nature of Italophone literature reflects this heterogeneous immigrant community.
-Prem Poddar, Rajeev Shridhar Patke, and Lars Jensen, eds., A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures 2

Although Edith Bruck s autobiographical debut was published in Italy more than 50 years ago, the international community of scholars has never before produced a comprehensive monographic study of her contributions to the Italophone literary scene. 3 This volume is intended to fill the staggering critical void that has accompanied her significant presence in the Italian cultural milieu from 1959 to the present. 4 The lack of a primary source of information on this author s life experiences, her works, and their reception poses a significant obstacle to anyone who wishes to look beyond the space she inhabits on the printed page and to any academic figure who chooses to include her works in a college-level course. My hope is that this book will not only help to clarify and synthesize the eclectic variety of approaches that a handful of scholars have taken to the study of Bruck s artistic production, but also (and perhaps more so) that my passion and affinity for her diverse body of work will inspire other scholars to continue in my footsteps, as I have done for those who preceded me. A number of (albeit rare) responses to Bruck s publications have come from Italian scholars in the field of Women s Studies. What is still lacking among the extant academic inquiries into her career is a work of criticism that stems from a specific interest in Judaic studies: one that endeavors, when her literary and cinematic production calls for it, to analyze the specific context of the Shoah while also attempting to look beyond it, as the author has tried to do in her own personal and professional life. This volume is hence not intended as a specific contribution to the field of Women s Studies, nor does it fall squarely under the umbrella of Holocaust Studies. In those instances where Bruck s experiences and her artistic output allow for it, this study advocates for a broader, more inclusive approach to her craft, which cannot be neatly encapsulated in a single academic discipline.

Edith Bruck (n e Steinschreiber) was born on May 3