Montreal Jews, Eastern European Survivors, and the Intergenerational Legacy of the Holocaust in Nancy Richler’s The Imposter Bride

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Montreal Jews, Eastern European Survivors, and the Intergenerational Legacy of the Holocaust in Nancy Richler’s The Imposter Bride
Abstract
"Nancy Richler’s novel The Imposter Bride (2013) portrays a survivor’s story against the background of a global conflict, demonstrating how public and private interests are intermingled. The postwar Jewish Montreal offers a fitting backdrop for the discussion about the Canadian exclusionary immigration policy, strong anticommunist sentiments, and anti-Semitism during the 1930s. The conflicts within the Jewish community and the reserved attitude of the Canadian Jews to the Holocaust survivors constitute another tenet of the narrative. The daughter’s quest to uncover the truth about her mother’s past shifts the focus from public to private. It also provides narrative explorations on the nature of loss, grief, abandonment, and maternal absence. The narrative attention on mother-daughter relationship interrogates the question about individual happiness and family responsibility, rejection and acceptance, in the context of the Holocaust. The juxtaposition of public concerns and the survivors’ stories prompts the discussion about history and memory, representation and interpretation, morality and meaning."
Publication
TransCanadiana : Polish Journal of Canadian Studies / Revue Polonaise d'Études Canadienne
Volume
Vol. 9
Pages
152-168
Date
2017
Language
en
URL
Citation
Gasztold, Brygida. “Montreal Jews, Eastern European Survivors, and the Intergenerational Legacy of the Holocaust in Nancy Richler’s The Imposter Bride.” TransCanadiana : Polish Journal of Canadian Studies / Revue Polonaise d’Études Canadienne Vol. 9 (2017): 152–168. http://www.ptbk.org.pl/userfiles/file/TransCanadiana/TransCanadiana_9_2017_cover.pdf#page=153.
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