Lenka Reinerová's Uncanny Encounter with Theresienstadt

Abstract:The German-Czech author Lenka Reinerová explores the extermination of her family during the Holocaust in depth in only two texts: ‘Der Ausflug zum Schwanensee’ [The Journey to Swan Lake, 1983] and ‘Kein Mensch auf der Straße’ [Not a Soul on the Street, 1998]. In both instances, she employs elements and narrative strategies traditionally associated with the uncanny to represent the catastrophic event and its enduring impact. In ‘Kein Mensch auf der Straße’ in particular, this approach creates a grotesque contrast between the post-socialist bustle of Prague and the city of the dead the narrator encounters in Theresienstadt. Thus the spatial fictional representation of the uncanny serves to stage a return of repressed individual, family and national memory.