Between ruins and abysses: the memory of the Holocaust and the modern metropolis through the eyes of Anselm Kiefer and Gonçalo M. Tavares

Abstract

This article analyzes, in a comparative perspective, the novel Uma menina está perdida no seu século à procura do pai, published by portuguese novelist Gonçalo M. Tavares (2015), and two paintings from the Lilith Series, by German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer, made from 1980 to 1990. Starting from the hypothesis that both Kiefer and Tavares conceive the physical space in their works as allegories for modernity, mobilizing elements that aesthetically represent a western post-war Zeitgeist, drafting comments on the Holocaust and its sociocultural consequences. In order to do this, we will use a comparativist approach in literary studies in constant intersection with history and philosophy. Therefore, our argument is built based on the concepts of modernity (Benjamin, 2021) and postmodernity (Hutcheon, 1991) to connect relations made between form and content of the works selected this research’s corpus.