Can humor help us talk about one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century? Rostyslav Semkiv invites us to examine Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel «Everything is Illuminated» through the lens of memory, trauma, and Ukrainian-Jewish relations.
The novel «Everything is Illuminated» combines the history of the Holocaust, family memories, and a journey through modern-day Ukraine. In this article, the researcher demonstrates that the work goes beyond conventional notions of the Ukrainian-Jewish past and offers a more complex understanding of this history, one in which there are no unambiguously “guilty” or “right” parties.
“Foer bases his narrative of trauma not on documentary evidence, but on the principle of construction. Hence the paradox: the author invites us to remember not only through grief but also through laughter—the presence of the comic in the work is part of the process of coming to terms with trauma. The tragedy remains a tragedy, but humor and irony allow us to restore the human complexity to historical events.”
Mr. Rostislav pays particular attention to how the comic element functions in the novel. Humor and self-irony do not diminish the scale of the Holocaust; rather, they help reveal its human dimension, make sense of a complex past, and bring it closer to the contemporary reader.
The article demonstrates that coming to terms with historical catastrophes can take various forms. Sometimes it is precisely irony or laughter that helps us discuss the most painful chapters of history more deeply and honestly, without diminishing their tragedy.
The full article will be available this summer following the online publication of the project’s Imagological Collection on the website.
This publication was produced as part of the project "Jewish Heritage in Ukraine: Interdisciplinary Reflections through the Lens of Archival Documents, Culture, History, and Literature", implemented by the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy with the support of UNESCO Ukraine and the European Union.
All publications are produced with the financial support of the European Union. Their content is the sole responsibility of the partners and does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Union.