Comparative Study on the Post-Holocaust Literature across the Borders of Languages

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K00531
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02050:Literature in general-related
• Research Institution: Ritsumeikan University
• Principal Investigator: Nishi Masahiko 立命館大学, 先端総合学術研究科, 教授 (40172621)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: ホロコースト / 証言 / 文学表現 / 継承語 / 習得語 / ジェノサイド / 抵抗

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Holocaust literature consists of a wide range of verbal expressions, from the relics or insistently haunting voices of victims who failed to survive the war, through the testimonies of survivors, to the remorseful recollections of either of Jews or of non-Jews.
The languages used by these witnesses and writers varied from their first languages to those they acquired after the war. Taking a comprehensive look at these diverse documents, I have been careful not to confine Holocaust studies within the framework of Zionist Jewish studies.
In the end, I made clear that this diversity has a universal quality that is consistent with the fact that literature, when attempting to confront "genocide," always seeks out diverse paths through trial and error.

Free Research Field

比較文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

明治以降の「外地の日本語文学」にも関心をいだいてきた筆者にとって、「ホロコースト文学」の実験性は、驚きでもありはしたが、それは東アジア地域の戦後文学、ポストコロニアルの文学にも通じる実験性であることを確認でき、このことは今後の「外地の日本語文学」をめぐる研究にも反映させていける学術的成果だと思う。
歴史学や社会学の分野での「ホロコースト研究」との接合可能性をも試みており、同研究には学際性が欠かせないことを主張していきたい。それこそが「ホロコースト研究」を社会の改善（レイシズムや暴力の制止）をもたらすと信じるからである。