Tag: world war ii

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What Keeps Bringing Me Back to Magda Szabó’s “Katalin Street”?

As I’m teaching Magda Szabó’s Katalin Street, I keep asking myself, “Why am I drawn to this book?” I’ve only read it twice, once last summer and again this semester in preparation for teaching it. Yet, I keep feeling like Katalin Street is one of those novels, like those of Ernest Gaines, Toni Morrison, or others, that I will come back to again and again over the … Read More What Keeps Bringing Me Back to Magda Szabó’s “Katalin Street”?

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Memory of the Past in Magda Szabó’s “Katalin Street”

Last year, I read Magda Szabó’s Kaitlin Street, and after finishing it, I knew that I wanted to teach because of the ways that the novel explores themes of memory, love, family, and more during turbulent times. As I constructed my syllabus for “The Reverberations of World War II,” I toyed with adding Szabó’s Abigail, a novel about a young girl at a boarding school in Hungary during … Read More Memory of the Past in Magda Szabó’s “Katalin Street”

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The Continuation of History and The Search for Stability Amidst War and Chaos: Part II

In his essay “The Storyteller,” Walter Benjamin details the power of storytelling and the ways that stories do more than just relate the events in a character’s or society’s lives. Stories span time and history, moving forward. They highlight the “insignificant” who move through history, those who don’t appear in the records of the age, those who exist as the historical moments occur. We … Read More The Continuation of History and The Search for Stability Amidst War and Chaos: Part II

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The Continuation of History and the Search for Stability Amidst War and Chaos

Amidst calamity, whether that be war, famine, environmental disasters, or anything that disrupts individuals’ existence, life moves forward, history moves forward. This constant progression of time has become a recurring theme so far in my “The Reverberations of World War II” course, specifically in Anna Seghers’ Transit and Victor Serge’s Last Times. Each of these novels focuses on individuals fleeing the advancing Nazis. They move from Paris … Read More The Continuation of History and the Search for Stability Amidst War and Chaos

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Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s “Grass” and The Power of Comics

Last fall, I picked up Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s Waiting, a graphic novel, loosely based on Gendry-Kim’s mother, as sisters, separated from one another during the Korean War, reunite during one of the family reunions between North and South Korea. Gendry-Kim’s writing and illustrations powerfully depict the emotions of the sisters, and her use of the graphic medium, through black and white illustrations, conveys the pain and suffering of … Read More Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s “Grass” and The Power of Comics