@phdthesis{383,
  keywords = {Ethnic identity, Jewish diaspora, Mennonites, German, Literary criticism},
  author = {Elfrieda Schroeder},
  title = {Fragmented identity: a comparative study of German Jewish and Canadian Mennonite literature after World War II},
  abstract = {This thesis examines the common theme of fragmented identity in the literature of German Jewish and Canadian Mennonite authors after World War II. An historical perspective liven in the introduction clearly indicates that the Jewish and Mennonite peoples, whose origins are rooted in religion, have a similar history of persecution resulting in genocidal atrocities in the twentieth century. This has become part of their collective unconscious and has influenced how they view themselves. Significant for a background to this work are Erik Erikson's psychological insights and theories on identity development in adolescence, as explained in his book Identity and the Life Cycle (1980), particularly his theories on ego-identity and identity diffusion. The main chapters are a close textual analysis of several works of German Jewish and Canadian Mennonite authors, using the four-dimensional discipline of comparative literature as defined by François Jost in his Introduction to Comparative Literature (1974). Erikson's identity theories, as outlined in the introduction, are implied in these chapters and serve as a background for the discussion. Chapter One compares Jurek Becker's Bronsteins Kinder with Rudy Wiebe's Peace Shall Destroy Many . A close character analysis reveals what happens to the identity of people who have experienced persecution and torture when that experience is repressed by them, and how this in turn influences their community and those who look to them as role models. Chapter Two, a comparative study of Barbara Honigmann's Eine Liebe aus nichts with selected poetry by Sarah Klassen, demonstrates the coping mechanisms employed when it becomes apparent that identity is no loner intact. The helplessness of the victim in the face of nameless terror reveals itself in several ways: the person suffers from a persecution complex, indulges in role play, retreats into flights of fancy, and employs language as a means of control. The final chapter, a comparison of Rafael Seligmann's Rubinsteins Versteigerung with Armin Wiebe's The Salvation of Yasch Siemens , illustrates the mocking of identity. The protagonists are scapegoats of the major cultures to which they relate and develop pathologies that are also symbolic of the minor cultures in which they find themselves. By satirizing the social norms of their group and amalgamating the languages of both cultures, they take a mocking look at some of the idiosyncrasies inherent in their world. All of the authors in this study, as well as their protagonists, must find their identities in a dual culture, in which the majority stigmatizes the minority and the minority internalizes that stigma. Caught in this dilemma, the authors then try to demonstrate that the stigma does or does not fit. Each of them experiences the tension between assimilation to the new society and desiring to retain the culture of the old one. By comparing German Jewish and Canadian Mennonite literature, this study links individual and group identity of two minor cultures within two major cultures and demonstrates what takes place in the human psyche when one group attempts to dominate another.},
  year = {2001},
  edition = {Ph.D.},
  number = {Dissertation/Thesis},
  publisher = {University of Waterloo, (Dept. of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures)},
  language = {English},
}