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Gender and Sexuality in Women Survivors’ Personal Narratives

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Representing Auschwitz

Part of the book series: The Holocaust and Its Contexts ((HOLC))

Abstract

Over the past four decades, gender-specific differences in personal narratives from the Holocaust have been the subject of heated academic debate and there is a growing body of research on manifestations of gender and sexuality in personal camp narratives. While Lawrence Langer, a leading scholar in the study of Holocaust testimonies, sought to counter nascent feminist research in the field by asserting the ‘severely diminished role that gendered behaviour played during those crucial years’ (1998, p. 13), his position has in turn been rejected in recent studies by Hutton (2005), Waxman (2006) and in the coedited volume by Hedgepeth and Saidel (2010), who variously argue for women’s distinct experiences in the camps or distinct narrative patterns derived from female socialization.

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Authors
  1. Cathy S. Gelbin
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Melbourne, Australia

    Nicholas Chare (Lecturer in Gender Studies) (Lecturer in Gender Studies)

  2. Montague Burton Fellow in Jewish Studies, University of Leeds, UK

    Dominic Williams

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© 2013 Cathy S. Gelbin

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Cite this chapter

Gelbin, C.S. (2013). Gender and Sexuality in Women Survivors’ Personal Narratives. In: Chare, N., Williams, D. (eds) Representing Auschwitz. The Holocaust and Its Contexts. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137297693_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137297693_9

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-45217-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-29769-3

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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