Second- and Third-Generation Holocaust Writing in Australia: Towards a Cultural History

Abstract:Although Australia is home to a mid-sized Jewish community with a rich cultural life, the study of Australian Jewish literature lags far behind scholarship by historians and sociologists. In this paper, we begin to think about what might constitute a canon of Australian Jewish writing, focusing particularly on writing since the turn of the new century. We examine five texts by some of Australia’s most celebrated Jewish authors. In examining these works, we show the centrality of the Holocaust to Australian Jewish literature. This is not surprising, given that the Holocaust, as scholars have long established, serves as a kind of foundational narrative for the local Jewish community. The writers we examine—second- and third-generation authors whose works are consistent with many of the major features of second- and third-generation writing—clearly situate the Holocaust as the most defining experience in shaping what Australian Jewry has become.