The Holocaust trope : traumatic memory and melodrama in Isabel Coixet's La Vida Secreta de las Palabras (The Secret Life of Words, 2005)

Using the Holocaust as a transnational trope, and drawing on the theoretical debates on the representation of trauma within Film Studies, this essay will examine the ethical and political significance of traumatic memory in Isabel Coixet's La Vida Secreta de las Palabras (The Secret Life of Words, 2005), a transnational film that deals with the traumatic suffering of a female victim and survivor of the Bosnian genocide. A textual analysis will mainly focus on the generic treatment of melodrama in the film and be related to some extra-textual discourses on the Balkan conflict, to show how the film exemplifies the tendency to tap into the broad imagery of the Holocaust in a productive, intercultural way.