Abstract
This essay reads Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow as a work of Holocaust fiction. While Pynchon refers to the Holocaust and other historical atrocities indirectly throughout the novel, he generally favors techniques of partial omission and oblique presentation. This approach aligns Pynchon with one of the dominant textual strategies of atrocity fiction in general, and of Holocaust fiction in particular. It also allows Pynchon to consider the events of the Holocaust in ways that resonate with two major tendencies in Holocaust historiography: its status as a product of modernity, and its relationship to a longer history of colonial genocide.
Copyright © 2025 for the Purdue Research Foundation by Johns Hopkins University Press.
Copyright © 2025 for the Purdue Research Foundation by Johns Hopkins University Press.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 590-613 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| Journal | MFS - Modern Fiction Studies |
| Volume | 71 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 4 Oct 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Research Unit(s) information for this publication is provided by the author(s) concerned.Funding
This research was supported by a Hong Kong SAR GRF Grant (Project Number 11603722/City University of Hong Kong Project Number 9043452).
Publisher's Copyright Statement
- COPYRIGHT TERMS OF DEPOSITED POSTPRINT FILE: © 2025 for the Purdue Research Foundation by Johns Hopkins University Press. This is the final manuscript version that is post-peer review and accepted for publication. Sandberg, E. (2025). “In Full Holocaust”: Gravity’s Rainbow and the Absent Atrocity. MFS - Modern Fiction Studies, 71(3), 590-613. https://doi.org/10.1353/mfs.2025.a971370
RGC Funding Information
- RGC-funded
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