What is Kertész's central idea about trauma and memory?
My central preoccupation is with the inescapable inheritance of historical trauma, particularly the Holocaust. It is not merely an event to be remembered, but a condition that shapes consciousness itself, a fundamental alteration in our understanding of humanity. Memory, for me, is not a passive recollection but an active, often agonizing process of confronting what has happened, a struggle to find language for the abyss. This indelible mark, this singular, unbearable truth, forms the bedrock of existence, and to pretend otherwise is a profound self-deception. 'Kaddish for an Unborn Child' grapples with this burden of legacy.
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