This thesis makes a comparative study of two internationally acclaimed texts of Holocaust literature, Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Enemies, a love story and Bernhard Schlink’s The reader. Special attention will be given to the sociopsychological world of Jews and Germans in the post-Holocaust era, namely the Jews’ collective anxiety and the Germans’ collective shame. While doing so, we will call into focus the traumatic symptoms of the two female protagonists Masha and Hanna respectively, and treat the widespread skepticism towards traditional religions and moral philosophy. The questions of how to reconcile the past and the present and how to face the future constitute the thematic core of the texts in case. Both texts reflect the historical catastrophe and reveal the scarred human psyche. They work to offer illuminating insights into the great complexity of human nature. The two texts are a compelling reminder that religious, political and cultural enmities and conflicts may result in irreparable individual and collective trauma, thus necessitating negotiation, dialogue and cooperation between different cultural groups in order to make constructive (rather than destructive) cultural choices.

中文翻译：

---

当梦想变成噩梦：对敌人、爱情故事和读者的比较研究

本论文对两部享誉国际的大屠杀文学作品《艾萨克·巴什维斯·辛格的敌人》、一个爱情故事和伯恩哈德·施林克的《读者》进行了比较研究。将特别关注后大屠杀时代犹太人和德国人的社会心理世界，即犹太人的集体焦虑和德国人的集体耻辱。在此过程中，我们将分别聚焦两位女主角玛莎和汉娜的创伤症状，并对待普遍存在的对传统宗教和道德哲学的怀疑。如何调和过去与现在，如何面对未来，构成了案文的主题核心。这两篇文章都反映了历史灾难，揭示了人类心灵的伤痕。他们致力于为人性的巨大复杂性提供富有启发性的见解。这两份文本令人信服地提醒人们，宗教、政治和文化的敌意和冲突可能会导致无法弥补的个人和集体创伤，因此需要不同文化群体之间进行谈判、对话和合作，以便做出建设性（而非破坏性）的文化选择。