The post-shoah fiction of anna Langfus (1920–1966): reader’s positioning and empathic unsettlement

Abstract

Polish-born, writing-in-French novelist Anna Langfus (1920-1966) has left us a body of work with high testimonial, literary, epistemological and ethical value. Her three novels, imaginative works largely drawing from her own personal and direct experience of loss, estrangement and alienation, revolve around protagonists exiled from themselves and others. Chiefly concerned with the question of post-Holocaust identity, these narratives foreground the voice and experience of the survivor. Simultaneously, they seek an ethical communication with readers, who, for the most part, have not been subjected to nor left traumatized by the radical experience Langfus’ characters endured. Drawing on Dominick LaCapra’s notion of “empathic unsettlement”, and illustrating the discussion with quotes taken from Langfus’ thoughts on fiction-writing, this article discusses some of the narratorial choices she made – characterisation; rejection of pathos; gaps, silences and ellipses – in order to channel her ethical call to the reader.