Memória, história e identidade judaica em narrativas de Jonathan Safran Foer

Abstract

O estudo comparativo entre os romances Everything is Illuminated (2002), Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005) e Here I am (2016), além do livro-escultura Tree of Codes (2010), do autor norte-americano Jonathan Safran Foer, apresenta questões concernentes à história e memória do povo judeu, e elementos de identidade judaica. Foer revisa fatos e momentos históricos que remetem ao período da Segunda Guerra Mundial e os primeiros anos do pós-Guerra. Em Everything is Illuminated, o narrador-personagem-autor Jonathan Safran Foer faz uma viagem à Ucrânia em busca de informações sobre seu avô, judeu, que fora abrigado e salvo dos nazistas por uma mulher chamada Augustine. No romance Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, o avô e a avó de Oskar, o personagem principal, revelam os momentos de horror vividos durante o bombardeio incendiário a Dresden. Já o livro Here I am, apresenta a família de Jacob e Julia Bloch como representação de uma família de judeus americanos, que se equilibra entre a secularidade e as tradições religiosas, passando por conflitos conjugais e a crise iniciada com o terremoto que destrói Jerusalém. Tree of Codes, criado por meio de recortes a partir da obra The Street of Crocodiles (1937), de Bruno Schultz, recria o contexto da Ucrânia no período pré-Segunda Guerra, época em que o país foi massacrado pelo genocídio imposto pela Rússia. As estratégias narrativas empregadas pelo autor e tópicos como o silêncio, o trauma e a memória são examinados neste trabalho.

The comparative study of the novels Everything is Illuminated (2002), Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005), Here I am (2016), and Tree of Codes (2010), by the American author Jonathan Safran Foer, presents elements of Jewish identity as well as questions concerning the history and memory of the Jewish people. Foer reviews facts and historical moments that refer to the period of World War II and the early post-war years. In Everything is Illuminated, storyteller-character-author Jonathan Safran Foer makes a trip to Ukraine in search of information about his Jewish grandfather, who was sheltered and saved from the Nazis by a woman named Augustine. In the novel Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Oskar’s grandfather and grandmother reveal the moments of horror experienced during the bombardment of Dresden. The book Here I am presents the family of Jacob and Julia Bloch as the representation of an American-Jewish family who tries to find the balance between secularity and religious traditions through marital conflicts and the crisis started with the earthquake that destroys Jerusalem. Tree of Codes, created by means of clippings from Bruno Schultz’s The Street of Crocodiles (1937), recreates the context of Ukraine in the pre-Second War period, when the country was massacred by the genocide imposed by Russia. The narrative strategies employed by the author and topics such as silence, trauma, and memory are examined in this dissertation.