Emotionale Objekte und die Last der Vergangenheit: Symbolische Präsenz und physische Verarbeitung transgenerationaler Traumata in der russischen und südslawischen Literatur

In many literary texts the haptic symbolism of transgenerational trauma is illustrated by objects. Inherited artefacts are in this understanding symbolic as well as indexical: e.g. when amulets, that are worn around the neck, illustrate a burden inherited from earlier generations. Such a meaning becomes often evident already in the symbolic act of passing down an object to a successor. The paper lays its focus especially on motifs of interaction between characters and objects that illustrate their coping with the emotional charge of the past. This is to shed light on the emotional value of different objects and on the mimesis of the physiologically perceived burdens of trauma.