Receptive Strategy as a Way for Solving Communicative Tasks in the Latest Holocaust Prose

The article examines the receptive strategy as a tool for achieving communicative tasks in contemporary Holocaust novels. The relevance of the study stems from the transformation of artistic representation of genocide in the 21st century and the growing emphasis on the reader’s experience, intertwined with the ethical comprehension of a tragic past. The aim of the paper is to identify the means by which literature influences the reader and encourages reflection on individual and collective responsibility. The material for the study includes novels by second- and third-generation Holocaust authors: The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman, The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell, and Mittelreich by Josef Bierbichler. The methodological framework is based on the pragmatic approach in literary studies and narrative analysis. The primary focus lies on the subject-object structure of the text as a mechanism of receptive influence and a base of receptive strategy. The study reveals that contemporary Holocaust prose employs receptive strategies aimed at dismantling entrenched stereotypes of perceiving the tragedy. These strategies are realized through the narrative’s subject structure, speech patterns, the narrator’s stance, and the specificity of the ending. Central to the analysis are the figures of victims, perpetrators, and their descendants. The article describes how each character undergoes a process of comprehending and overcoming personal or inherited guilt, ultimately accepting their own responsibility. The originality of the research lies in demonstrating how the receptive mechanisms of the literary text activate the recipient’s moral involvement in constructing meaning and foster the reader’s capacity for ethical reflection in the context of historical trauma.