Transmission of traumatic experience : secondary trauma in Tatiana de Rosnay's novel "Sarah's Key"

Abstract

Since secondary trauma, which is usually defined as indirect experience of a particular trauma, does not receive a lot of attention in literary studies, this paper aims to discuss historical trauma of the Holocaust as the one that is transmitted to different generations and thus is secondary. It draws on trauma and memory studies that provide various useful concepts for the discussion of this phenomenon. In the analysis of Tatiana de Rosna/s novel Sarah's Key (2008), the Holocaust trauma links two families: the Starzynskis and the Tezacs, since the former ones are jews who are forced to leave their apartment in Paris in 1942 and are sent to concentration camps, while the latter ones move into the apartment of the former ones. After many years, Julia, a journalist, carries out research for her article and learns what happened to the Starzynskis and their daughter Sarah who escaped from the camp. Julia is so much affected by the story that she can be seen as a secondary witness who experiences a secondary trauma. At the same time, she transmits this trauma further to William, Sarah's son, who did not learn about his mother's past when she was alive. Thus, William becomes a second generation witness.