Once a Russian, Always a Jew: (Auto)biographical Storytelling and the Legacy of Dislocation

Abstract:Culled in part from nearly 20 hours of audio recordings of the author's father's experiences with displacement prior to, during, and after World War II, this paper explores some conditions that make it possible for people to feel at home in the aftermath of forced dislocation and the ways in which storytelling can help break the subsequent cycle of violence that can emerge from such an experience. The author's father's story is interspersed with her own narrative voice as well as a theoretical exploration of what is at stake for the storyteller and for those who bear witness to the stories told of experience at the nexus between memory and history.