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Charlotte Delbo: Writing (Against) Death
- Women in French Studies
- Women in French Association
- Volume 6, Special Issue 2016
- pp. 98-111
- 10.1353/wfs.2016.0009
- Article
- Additional Information
Literature plays an unexpectedly important role in the writings of a number of survivors of the Shoah. In her work, Charlotte Delbo often focuses on the presence and significance of literature in her experience as a prisoner in the concentration camps. She refers to literature as an “arme,” a weapon whose aid is essential for survival. Unlike others, however, she finds in the literary little relief from the constant threat of death, which was never for a moment absent in the camps. While for some, literary engagement in the camps, which took a variety of forms, provided a mode of resistance and even momentary relief, it had for Delbo no such salutary effect. Death was for her always in the forefront, and she wove it knowingly into every aspect of her writing. Her response to the threat of death was to make her reader see it by writing death fully and richly into her work.