Avrom Sutzkever's Art Of Testimony Analysis

In the article, “Avrom Sutzkever’s Art of Testimony: Witnessing with the Poet in the Wartime Soviet Union,” Hannah Pollin-Galay makes the argument that Avrom Sutzkever’s poetry had a large influence on the portrayal of the Holocaust. She supports this notion by evaluating his credibility and addressing the role it played in his influence. Also, she establishes that his addition to the literary portrayal of the Holocaust was drastically different than anything before. She evaluates his dramatization of speech and claims that it allowed for a more genuine expression of testimonies. Lastly, she clarifies the importance of his poetry in the effect it had on the general public and Holocaust victims as well. She argues that his impact was that of great importance and had a …show more content…
Furthermore, she identifies key factors that attributed to the dramatization of dialogue, such as the use of recognizable conversations, the seamless presence of a mediator, and the lack of individualized speakers. The use of recognizable conversation is where she argues that Sutzkever’s credibility came into play, representing the emotion of different characters and telling their stories through dialogue. In addition, she claims that because he was able to seamlessly insert himself into the conversation as a mediator, it ultimately resulted in a more practical method of evaluation. Lastly, his poetry utilized a progressive loss of individuals where the separation of character and narrator would eventually disappear. She claims that this helped express the stories of Holocaust victims because the poem was more personal, allowing for a natural progression of both idea and plot. The effectiveness of these methods can be seen by how his audience responded, she suggests that this furthers the notion that his work was truly