On Violence Writing In What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank

Contemporary American Jewish writer Nathan Englander(1970-)published a short story collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank in 2013,which won Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and was successfully shortlisted for The Pulitzer Prize.Those stories cover Jews as diverse as Holocaust survivors and their descendants,Jews who emigrated to the United States and those who settled in Israel.Although these Jewish characters have different backgrounds,life experiences and emotional experiences,they are all affected by violence and adopt different ways to reply to violence.Based on ?i?ek’s theory of violence,this study systematically analyzes the three types of violence in the short story collection: subjective,objective,and symbolic violence.It also reveals the three kinds of violence’s operating mechanism and practical enlightenment.In this work,subjective violence takes the form of revenge and wars,objective violence is embodied in political oppression,economic exploitation and cultural repression,and symbolic violence is mainly manifested in social conventions and naming.The three kinds of violence are interrelated and constitute a unique violent field with inherent causality.In this work,the political,economic and cultural oppression caused by objective violence intensifies the contradictions between and within races,eventually leading to frequent subjective violence.Symbolic violence acts on people’s unconscious and “legalizes” violence through conventions and naming,forcing victims like Mrs.Blum and Yehudit to accept violence unconsciously and inducing Cohen and Rena to resort to violence.Englander placed the violence writing in the context of the historical destiny and reality of the Jewish nation,revealed the consequences of violence,dug out the root of violence,and thus explored the possible way out of violence.Englander’s reflection on violence and re-examination of its consequences can inspire other countries to make rational judgments and choices and prevent the recurrence of historical tragedies.