Thane Rosenbaum, Elijah Visible, short stories, Jewish American fiction, the Holocaust, survivors, children of survivors, transmission of trauma

This article analyzes Rosenbaum?s short-story cycle or novel-in-stories Elijah Visible, in which the fragmented postmodern protagonist Adam Posner is profoundly affected by the traumatic legacy of his parents. Although with each story his identity is modified, the experience of this American Adam is framed by the feeling of being relocated in space and time. Being immersed in the Holocaust, at the same time Rosenbaum is aware of its unspeakability. The article attempts to illuminate the mediation of traumatic experience between two generations and to show that the intergenerational transmission of trauma complicates relationships between survivors and their children, often burdened by the survivors? silence on the Holocaust, resulting in the alienation of the post-Holocaust generation from their parents.