Buchenwald and Ivan Ivanji’s Impossible Archive: The Voices of the Dead
Buchenwald and Ivan Ivanji’s Impossible Archive: The Voices of the Dead
Abstract: How and what does the literature on Buchenwald remember? How does the paradox between the impossibility of archiving and the will to rescue the victims of concentration camps, and more specifically of Buchenwald, from anonymity, take shape in literature? The aim of this contribution is to answer these questions by analysing Ivan Ivanji’s novel Der Aschenmensch von Buchenwald [The Man of Ashes of Buchenwald] as an impossible archive containing the voices of the dead of the concentration camp. To this end, the parallels between Ivanji’s novel and the anti-archive created by Danilo Kiš in his text The Encyclopedia of the Dead (A Whole Life) will be explored. Both texts aspire to reflect the (impossible) totality, while paying homage to the anonymous dead of the wars and dictatorships of the 20th century.
Keywords: Holocaust studies, trauma studies, literature and concentration camps, literature and the dead, Ivan Ivanji, Danilo Kiš
Citation suggestion: Calero Valera, Ana R. “Buchenwald and Ivan Ivanji’s Impossible Archive: The Voices of the Dead.” Transilvania, no. 2 (2024): 68-77.
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