Can the Holocaust be compellingly described or represented? Or is
there some core aspect of the extermination of the Jews of Europe
which resists our powers of depiction, of theory, of narrative? In
this volume, twenty scholars probe the moral, epistemological, and
aesthetic limits of an account or portrayal of the Nazi horror.
These essays expose to scrutiny questions that have a pressing
claim on our attention, our conscience, and our cultural memory.
First presented at a conference organized by Saul Friedlander, they
are now made available for the wide consideration and discussion
they merit.
Christopher Browning, Hayden White, Carlo Ginzburg, Martin Jay,
Dominick LaCapra, and others focus first on the general question:
can the record of his historical event be established objectively
through documents and witnesses, or is every historical
interpretation informed by the perspective of its narrator? The
suggestion that all historical accounts are determined by a
preestablished narrative choice raises the ethical and intellectual
issues of various forms of relativization. In more specific terms,
what are the possibilities of historicizing National Socialism
without minimizing the historical place of the Holocaust.
Also at issue are the problems related to an artistic
representation, particularly the dilemmas posed by
aestheticization. John Felstiners, Yael S. Feldman, Sidra Ezahi,
Eric Santner, and Anton Kaes grapple with these questions and
confront the inadequacy of words in the face of the Holocaust.
Others address the problem of fitting Nazi policies and atrocities
into the history of Western thought and science. The book concludes
with Geoffrey Hartmans's evocativemeditation on memory.
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