Writer Cynthia Ozick read part of her essay "Who Owns Anne Frank?" at Harvard Hillel last night, criticizing the popular conception of Anne Frank as optimistic hero.
The reading--from Quarrel & Quandary, Ozick's latest collection of essays--launched Harvard Hillel's forum series on Jewish literature and culture and was co-sponsored by Harvard Book Store.
Ozick blames everyone from Frank's father--who withheld parts of the diary from publication--to high school English teachers for eclipsing the dark, honest observations of the famous adolescent Holocaust victim.
"It's a deeply truth-telling work but it's been an instrument of surrogate truth, the pure made impure," she read.
She suggests that Frank's diary should not be widely read by young school children.
The article generated controversy when it was first published in The New Yorker in 1997, to coincide with the Broadway revival of the play.
And Ozick was not without critics last night.
"I do think it's a controversial topic. I've read the diary at certain points in my life and I think I got more out of my later reading because I read it when I was younger," said Dalia L. Rotstein '03, who is also a Crimson editor.
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