ABSTRACT
This chapter examines what are commonly named family “bonds” and blood “ties.” These suggest incapacitation or even violence, indicating a general ambivalence about close family relations, even in common parlance. Drawing on theories of genograms and epigenetics in the context of family relations, in particular artistic relations, we will read selected autobiographies through the prism of the biological inheritance of life experiences. This study draws on theories of memory and postmemory, especially where Jewish writers are concerned, as well as the idea of the inheritance of trauma.
