Threshold Modernism: New Public Women and the Literary Spaces of Imperial London by Elizabeth F. Evans (review)

Abstract

a welcome addition here. A more puzzling choice is the inclusion of “The Master Race,” the subject of the final chapter, “Visual Landscapes of Memory: Fracturing Time and Space.” Here Aarons returns to mid-century America to discuss “Master Race,” illustrated by Al Feldstein and Bernie Krigstein, respectively, of EC Comics, which specialized in crime, horror and suspense. While “Master Race” is a fascinating piece that has deservedly received recognition for its place in the historiography of Holocaust graphic narratives (perhaps the first postwar US comic to address the aftereffects of the Shoah), it is a fictious tale of revenge that is a departure from the other narratives’ personal connection to the Holocaust and, thus, seems out of place given the author’s overall arc of her study. Aarons’s work is an astute analysis of post-Maus graphic narratives, showing how they have continued to grapple with and inform the Holocaust’s legacy. Her impressive research, drawn from a range of sources, and insightful analysis more than convince that the genre uniquely lends itself to furthering the traumatic memory of the Holocaust. Even, or perhaps especially, as the temporal distance to the event grows, Aarons demonstrates that Holocaust graphic narratives offer a compelling way to approach and remember the complexity of the history and its legacy.