Publications
Holocaust Mothers and Daughters: Family, History, and Trauma (Brandeis UP 2013)
An astonishing analysis of Jewish mother-daughter relations before, during and after the Shoah as described in daughters’ memoirs.
In this brave and original work, F. K. Clementi focuses on the mother-daughter bond as depicted in six works by women who experienced the Holocaust, sometimes with their mothers, sometimes not. The daughters’ memoirs, which record the “all-too-human” qualities of those who were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis, show that the Holocaust cannot be used to neatly segregate lives into the categories of before and after. Her discussions of differences in social status, along with the persistence of antisemitism and patriarchal structures, support this point strongly, demonstrating the tenacity of trauma—individual, familial and collective—among Jews in 20th-century Europe.
“Do daughters feel differently about their mothers in situations of extremity such as war or genocide? In this illuminating study of six autobiographical works by Jewish Holocaust victims or survivors, F.K. Clementi shows that their mother/daughter plots follow some of the same complex, ambivalent, contradictory and ultimately devastating trajectories characterizing ordinary times. Yet in giving space and close attention to the intimate stories of women, 'Holocaust Mothers and Daughters' discovers unexpected aspects of creativity and survival in times of catastrophe.” —Marianne Hirsch, Columbia University
“After reading [this book], it is impossible to think about Jewish Holocaust experiences without paying attention to gender, specifically family ties, the centrality of mothers and the distinct dynamics of mother-daughter bonds that shaped these writers’ — and presumably other women’s — existences during the war and thereafter.” —Alexandra Garbarini, Williams College
Jewish Women in Comics: Bodies and Borders. Heike Bauer, Andrea Greenbaum, Sarah Lightman editors (Northwestern UP, 2023)
Nominated for the Broken Frontier 2023 Award for Best Book on Comics
Winner of the 2024 South Atlantic Modern Language Association for Best Edited Collection
F. K. Clementi Schoeman, pp. 31-36: "Of Mice and Women: Miriam Libicki's 'Sheretz'"
Her Story, My Story? Writing about Women and the Holocaust. Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz, Dalia Ofer editors. (Peter Lang, 2020)
Finalist for the 2020 National Jewish Book Award
F. K. Clementi Schoeman, pp. 235-247: “An Academic Autobiography in Seven Uneasy Vignettes”
Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women. Sarah Lightman editor (McFarland, 2014)
Winner the Susan Koppelman Prize for Best Feminist Anthology, 2015
Winner of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award 2015
Nominee for the Broken Frontier Award, 2014
F. K. Clementi Schoeman, pp. 234-239 : “Federica K. Clementi on Aline Kominsky-Crumb”
Creating under Covid. Judith Tydor-Schartz editor. (Bar-Ilan University's The Finkler Institute of Holocaust Studies, 2020)
F. K. Clementi Schoeman, pp. 131-133: “We Are No Anne Frank. And Yet…”
Academic Journal Articles
“Funny Professors, Serious Lessons: An Analysis of the Image of Jews as Academics in Film,” F.K.Schoeman and Christian Anderson. Jewish Film & New Media vol. 8 (2): Wayne State University Press, 2021; 153-185.
“Between Jew and Nature: Tracing Jewish Ethics in the Ecological Imagination of Bernard Malamud’s Dubin’s Lives.” Studies in American Jewish Literature, volume 38, Number 1 (March 2019): 47-75.
“Natalia Ginzburg, Clara Sereni, Lia Levi: Jewish Italian Women Recapturing City, Family and National Memory.” The European Journal of Women’s Studies (Fall 2013).
“The JAP, the Yenta, and the Mame in Aline Kominsky Crumb’s Graphic Imagination.” The Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics (Routledge University Press) iFirst (Sept 2012): 1-23.
“Helena Janeczek’s Lessons of Darkness: Uncharted Paths to Shoah Memory through Food and Language.” Contemporary Women’s Writing (Oxford University Press) 6:1 (2012): 1-19.
“Nightbirds, Nightmares and the Mother’s Smile: Art and Psychoanalysis in Sarah Kofman’s Life-Writing.” Women in French Studies, Vol. 19 (2011): 67-84.
Winner of the National Florence Howe Award for Feminist Scholarship
“Rottweilers, Please Take Note: The Superpowers of Jewish Women’s Graphic Memory!,” essay contributed to the catalogue for the exhibition Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women (The Jewish Forward) 2010.
“Fra Bene Supremo e Male Supremo, la Fede di un Poeta: Jan Twardowski (“A Poet’s Faith between Ultimate Good and Ultimate Evil: Jan Twardowski”). Si Scrive (Cremona, Italy: 1996; 198-219).
