An Allegory of the Impossible <i>Time’s Arrow</i> Through the Lens of Unnatural Narratology

Abstract

The literary representations of the Holocaust are full of critical and creative taboos. While Holocaust survivors such as Primo Levi were producing insightful and touching memoirs of their unfortunate experiences, non-survivors such as Martin Amis were also participating in the imaginative understanding of the nature of Holocaust offense. Academic interests in representations of Holocaust are also thriving. Among them the Perpetrator Studies, a field in response to the WWII and Holocaust, is the most controversial. Focusing on the perpetrators of mass atrocity, this field has developed into an interdisciplinary field. Martin Amis's Time's Arrow was a literary reenactment of a Nazi doctor's experience during the WWII which had caused great controversy in the studies of Holocaust literature. In this article, it is examined how Martin Amis's Time's Arrow problematizes those taboos in a very unique way. By adopting techniques of unnatural narratology to narrativize the perspective of a Nazi doctor, Martin Amis creates a postmodern writerly text to allegorize the inexplicable nature of Holocaust. The complex and perplexing reading experience generated by the difficult text not only increase reader's investment in the novel but also in a subtle way ask them to bear witness to the Holocaust in this immersive act of reading. In this way, Martin Amis activates the performative power of literature and fulfills his duty as a moral witness to the genocide.