Memoria e trauma: il Gulag tra esperienza diretta ed eredità narrativa in Ginzburg e Aksënov

Abstract

The article focuses on two works that address the traumatic experience of the Stalinist regime and the Gulag system: Krutoj Maršrut [Into the Whirlwind, 1967] by Evgenija Ginzburg and Moskovskaja saga [The Moscow Saga, 1993] by her son Vasilij Aksënov. The familial bond between the authors serves as the starting point of this study. Taking these key aspects into account, the analysis is grounded in the theoretical frameworks of memory studies and trauma studies, with particular emphasis on studies of the intergenerational transmission of traumatic memory within families, at times drawing connections with Holocaust studies. Specifically, this work aims to examine how trauma is processed and passed down through generations, especially when bound by familial ties, and how the narration of memory differs between lived experience and inherited remembrance. In light of these perspectives, the comparison between the two literary works highlights the interplay between direct testimony and its narrative reworking, offering an insightful perspective through which literature becomes a form of survival and historical transmission.