Impact Of Postmodernism On Jewish Literature

Postmodernism greatly impacted Jewish literature and Jewish authors’. “The instincts of self-preservation, of self-defense, of pride, had all deserted us. In one terrifying moment of lucidity, I thought of us as damned souls wandering through the void, souls condemned to wander through space until the end of time, seeking redemption, seeking oblivion, without any hope of finding either.” (Night)
World War II was an extremely difficult time for Jewish authors and their works. In the 1930s, the Nazi book burning campaigns were conducted. A book written by a Jewish person was automatically, with no hesitation, thrown into the huge fire for being of the “un-German spirit”. Franz Werfel, a Jewish author, had every individual work he’s ever written before 1933, except for three, burned (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). This is a big impact on the literature of Jewish people due to the fact that there may still be valuable, yet missing, pieces of literature gone forever just because they were written by someone of Jewish heritage.
This impacted literature because this specific situation because of the diverseness of these writers. Most of these writers were victims and former soldiers. These stories gave readers more imagery and more emotion than ever before because they were reading actually true stories. “Not only did a new generation come out of the war, but its ethnic, regional, and social character was quite different from that of the preceding one.” (After World War