Representation of History and Trauma Writing in The Puppet Boy of Warsaw

Abstract

Eva Weaver is a German author whose first novel, The Puppet Boy of Warsaw grapples with the issues of history, trauma and writing itself. Drawing upon LaCapra’s understanding on history and trauma, this article examines the relation between representation of history and narrative nuances and how war-engendered trauma influences survivors, perpetrators and the later generations in different ways. It is founded that the dual focalization in the novel provides the complexity of history and also the mechanism of war. At the same time, the novel renders readers the extreme cruelty and inhumanity of the Holocaust and its ever-lasting influence through war-engendered trauma of different people.