MEGILLAT Esther Levy in Miriam Katin’s WE ARE ON OUR OWN

• In Event: Jewish Comics and Graphic Novels

Abstract

In this paper I argue that Miriam Katin’s first graphic novel and Holocaust memoir, WE ARE ON OUR OWN, is a contemporised, feminist response to MEGILLAT ESTHER (Drawn and Quarterly, 2006). I reference the writings of Rabbi Lynn Gottleib, Susan Brownmiller and Rebecca Scherr as well as the artworks of Kathe Kollwitz and Leela Corman, to reflect on the parallels and differences between the two narratives. Katin's depiction of her childhood share themes with the MEGILLAH of hidden Jews, acts of female heroism, thwarted genocide and sexual assault. However, in the MEGILLAH, Queen Esther's forced marriage and Haman’s attempted rape are narratively vital but empathetically unexplored. In contrast, Katin's memories of her mother, Esther Levy's, multiple rapes, first by a Nazi officer and then a mass rape by Red Army soldiers, are central to WE ARE ON OUR OWN (Katin 2006:45, 46, 59). Katin's MEGILLAT Esther Levy problematises a festival that celebrates redemption through military might and drunken celebration, but ignores the violence inflicted on the body of Esther, the heroine of the narrative.

Author

• Sarah Lightman, Birkbeck, University of London