The Book of Daniel: Exposure and Criticism of Political Violence

Abstract

E. L. Doctorow’s historical novel The Book of Daniel (1971), by using trauma narrative, from the perspective of the political Left wing, combining memory with imagination and mixing history with fiction, reconstructs the tragic historical story of Daniel’s parents who were electrocuted for treason by the state in the 1950s, exposes and criticizes the political violence as the root of trauma imposed upon the younger generation from that tragedy.