Anne Frank's Diary: Prose and Politics

Francine Prose's recently-released book, Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, is yet another "book about a book" (which I always find fascinating). But perhaps because of her subject, or perhaps because of her argument that the Diary should be read more as literature and less as historical document, Prose's book strikes me as particularly important.

The book examines how Frank herself revised and rewrote the Diary with what Prose calls "literary genius." Frank imagined the book being published, so she reshaped the narrative into more of a novel than a diary. In interviews with National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, Prose addresses the maturity with which Frank handles themes of family dynamics, teenage sexuality, and human nature.

What fascinates me most, however, is the "afterlife" of the story. From the further reshaping Frank's father, Otto, made before publication, to the "adaptations" made for stage and film in the US, the Diary has indeed been used and abused for many different purposes and audiences. The whitewashing of Frank's "Jewishness" in order to make the story more appealing to WASP audiences here in the states is particularly appalling.

Even more disturbing, though, are the attempts at censorship and outright banning of the Diary in schools. A day after the Jerusalem Post published its review of Prose's book, the Daily Star in Lebanon published an Agence France Presse report of the Diary being banned in a private, English-language school in Beirut. A Hizbu'llah spokesman criticized "teaching the so-called tragedy this girl lived" because the tragedies of Lebanese and Palestinians are not taught in schools. 

What? Rather than fight for inclusion of other (Arab) tragedies in classrooms, which I would readily support, Hizbu'llah fights to exclude the tragedy of a (Jewish) girl who was neither Israeli nor Zionist? This is not quite so ridiculous as the Alabama school board who tried to ban the Diary because it was "a real downer" in 1983, but it's close. It seems that Prose has an uphill battle in trying to convince the world that the Diary is a masterpiece worthy of merit for its literary value.