Magical realism and allegory in Joseph Skibell's A Blessing on the Moon

Vol.43,No.2(2017)

Stanislav Kolář

https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2017-2-5

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/137609

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Abstract
This paper analyzes Skibell's novel A Blessing on the Moon (1997), focusing on elements of the book's magical realism and allegory. It sets out to interpret Skibell's transposition of the Holocaust to his own experience as a representative of the post-Holocaust generation. Finally, the paper explores the ethical problems of this approach to the Holocaust – an approach that relies heavily on imagination. The interpretation of Skibell's novel demonstrates that the imaginative enactment of the tragic traumatic events cannot be dismissed as a mere appropriation of the Holocaust or as a form of "identity theft"; instead it must be seen as the author's genuine attempt to come to terms with the original trauma of his ancestors. In Skibell's case it is his great-grandfather Chaim Skibelski whose voice was silenced in the war and who becomes the protagonist of the novel.

Keywords:
Holocaust; Joseph Skibell; magical realism; allegory; the fantastic; postmemory; trauma

Pages:
95–110
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