The Holocaust and the grotesque: the case of Artur Sandauer's fiction

Abstract

The paper brings an analysis of the forms and functions of the grotesque in Artur Sandauer’s literary works as well as more general reflections on non-conventional means of artistic expression applied to the Shoah experience. In Sandauer’s fiction, the grotesque poetics serves not only to expose chosen aspects of the Holocaust but it also helps to create metaphors concerning the basic mechanisms and fundamental processes of the catastrophe. The grotesque in the works of this and other Holocaust writers is a much wider issue, worthy of thorough study. The authors variously employ images of dehumanisation, ironically reproduce Nazi propaganda, mock highbrow culture, expose the contradictions intrinsic in 19th and 20th century humanitarian discourse or in language itself. The grotesque makes readers uncomfortable, questions readymade interpretations and judgements, demands independence in taking a stance on things which are beyond understanding. That is why it becomes an efficient device of artistic expression concerning subjects which do not easily lend themselves to more traditional and conventional approaches.