Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Drawing on fifty years of sustained conversations (not single “testimonies”) with a group of Holocaust survivors–as both a psychologist and playwright–this presentation demonstrates the complex ways that survivors’ accounts emerge, and evolve, within sustained acquaintance. The concept goes far beyond what we call “co-construction.” It is, rather, a borrowing on both sides. I drew on survivors’ accounts in some of my dramatic work–not verbatim, but as crafted by me as playwright. Speaking for many, one survivor said “it’s not exactly what I said, but it’s exactly what I meant.” This raises basic questions about the claims of the verbatim and the role of literary/dramatic craft in any such retelling. In the meantime, a number of survivors borrowed back from my play in their own later retelling (in schools, etc.) so that they retold in a way closer to my dramatic reconstruction than they had before. So, in essence, they borrowed back my version of the account I initially borrowed from them. I suggest that this is always how it is. Much as we may personally “own” them, our most important stories emerge between us, in an ongoing process of borrowing back and forth that goes on as long as we do.