The testimony of homosexual concentration camp survivors: interdicted remembrance in the face of discursive denial

• Grant number: 23/07096-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: October 01, 2023
• End date: April 01, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Literature Theory
• Principal Investigator: Márcio Orlando Seligmann-Silva
• Grantee: Fábio Ávila Arcanjo
• Supervisor: Béatrice Marie Turpin
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: CY Cergy Paris Université, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/06435-8 - The testimony of homosexual concentration camp survivors: the interdicted remembrance in the face of discursive denial, BP.PD

Abstract

The present postdoctoral project is the result of a concern that arises from the unfolding from the results of our research, which dealt with the testimonial discourse mobilised as a result of the original traumas to the policy of extermination operated by Nazi Germany. In this project, we will deal with a type of testimony which reception proved to be minimal, due to the circulation of values guided by prejudice and silence. The testimony in question is mobilized by homosexuals deported to concentration camps, who for a long time were outlawed from the status of Holocaust survivors. In this type of testimonial remembrance, in addition to the original obstacle of the trauma of the experiences, we have a second type of obstacle, which is precisely that of the discursive deni, that is, the denial of words that would give name to this event (PAVEAU, 2005). That being said, our research will start from three theoretical axes: first, the theory of the testimony, in the approach of subjects as testimonial voices (SELIGMANN-SILVA, 2003; SARMENTO-PANTOJA, 2019), trauma (SELIGMANN-SILVA, 2008), disavowal (KUPPERMAN, 2016) and past perlaboration (AYOUCH, 2015; ROBIN, 2016). Secondly, we will deal with the argumentative modalities, in which will be examined the constructions of the images of themselves and of the other (AMOSSY, 2004; 2018) and the inscription of emotions (AMOSSY, 2018). In addition, we will deal with the process of artistic representation (SELIGMANN-SILVA, 2010) of the event in question, considering fiction as one of the possibilities to solve the void caused by a programmatic silence. (AU)