Exploring Relational Opportunities for Confronting Violent Histories within Transcultural Contexts from a Third-Generation Jewish Perspective: Mirna Funk’s<i>Winternähe</i>and<i>Zwischen Du und Ich</i>

This article analyses Mirna Funk9s novels <i>Winternähe</i> (2015) and <i>Zwischen Du und Ich</i> and places them within current discourses and contexts that shape contemporary German-language Jewish literature today. Drawing on Martin Buber9s philosophy of encounter and feminist re-conceptualizations of vulnerability and resistance, the article focuses on Funk9s relational perspectives on (post-) traumatic recovery and it highlights the timeliness of Funk9s relational response to radicalized conflict, violence and trauma. Funk9s female characters act as initiators for progressive memory perspectives that build on vulnerability as a platform for solidarity, resilience, and openness. These new perspectives present opportunities for (Jewish) descendants to find relief from the debilitating aftermath of traumatic histories and to emancipate themselves from trauma-and victim-based conceptions of Jewish identity. (DS)