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Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Christianstadt, Dachau. The names of Nazi concentration camps evoke images of radical destitution. The atrocities we call the Holocaust defy comprehension, while thinkers continue to ponder the possibility of 'poetry after Auschwitz.' And yet a number of people composed poems while imprisoned in the camps. Unlike most documents about the camps, these poems are self-representations that convey the perspective of the inmates who wrote them. 'Traumatic Verses' provides psychoanalytically informed close readings of a range of poems and discusses their significance for aesthetic theory and for research on the camps. It also tells the stories behind the composition and preservation of these poems and the history of their publication since 1945. Most of the poems appear here for the first time in English translation along with the original texts. This book fills a gap left by literary historians, who have mostly ignored writings from the camps and avoided careful scrutiny of literature produced under the Nazi regime. Studies of trauma have concentrated on post-traumatic experiences; discussions of aesthetics 'after' the Holocaust have neglected the issue of the artistic impulse 'in' the camps. On both counts this book constitutes a unique contribution to scholarship, showing that, when read attentively, the poems written in the camps are invaluable sites for confronting the Nazi past. Andrés J. Nader is Project Manager at the Amadeu Antonio Foundation in Berlin, and lectures at the Humboldt University. Winner, 2008 Modern Language Association Book Prize for Independent Scholars; from the statement of the Selection Committee: Leading a new generation of students of the Holocaust, Nader persuasively analyzes the psychological needs and motivations behind ... poetry composed in the concentration camps. Displaying a strong command of trauma and pain theory, as well as the prior history of Holocaust studies, [Nader] illuminates the role of poetry in the camp inmates' reclamation of the German language and cultural heritage. Offering many poems in English for the first time, in elegant translation, Nader's anthology and commentary add a significant new dimension to Holocaust studies.

Concentration camp inmates' writings --- German poetry --- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) in literature --- World War, 1939-1945 --- World War, 1939-1945, in literature --- Writings of concentration camp inmates --- Literature --- History and criticism --- Literature and the war --- Nazi concentration camp inmates' writings --- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature. --- History and criticism. --- Literature and the war. --- Writings of Nazi concentration inmates --- Aesthetic theory. --- Andrés J. Nader. --- Close readings. --- Concentration camps. --- Holocaust. --- Inmates. --- Nazi past. --- Poetry. --- Psychoanalytically.