Acting out Justice in J. J. Steinfeld's "Courtroom Dramas" (Report‪)‬

Abstract The article provides an interpretation of "Courtroom Dramas," a short story from J. J. Steinfeld's fiction collection Would You Hide Me? (Gaspereau, 2003). First, the paper examines Steinfeld's articulation of traumatic loss, and interprets the trial in "Courtroom Dramas" as a means for a grandson to mourn his deceased grandmother and (through memory of her) others unknown to him in the Holocaust. Here the fictional account of loss interacts productively with various theoretical models prevalent in the field of trauma studies. Second, historical justice issues embedded in this Holocaust story are revealed. Steinfeld's fiction is situated, finally, within a body of auto-ethnographic writing on the Nazi genocide, work foregrounding trans- generational memory.