The Holocaust and the PostmodernThe Holocaust and the Postmodern argues that postmodernism, especially understood in the light of the work of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, is a response to the Holocaust. This way of thinking offers new perspectives on Holocaust testimony, literature, historiography, and post-Holocaust philosophy. While postmodernism is often derided for being either playful and superficial or obscure and elitist, this book argues and demonstrates its commitment both to the pastand to ethics.Dealing with Holocaust testimony, including the work of Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel, with the memoirs of 'second generation' survivors and with recent Holocaust literature, including Anne Michael's Fugitive Pieces, Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated and the false memoir of Benjamin Wilkomirski, Eaglestone argues for a new way of reading both Holocaust testimony and Holocaust fiction. Through an exploration of Holocaust historiography, the book offers anew approach to debates over truth and memory. Eaglestone argues for the central importance of the Holocaust in understanding the work of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, and goes on to explore what the Holocaust means for rationality, ethics, and for the idea of what it is to be human. Weaving together theory and practice,testimony, literature, history, philosophy, and Holocaust studies, this interdisciplinary book is the first to explore in detail the significance of the Holocaust for postmodernism, and the significance of postmodernism for understanding the Holocaust. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
I READING AND THE HOLOCAUST | 13 |
II HOLOCAUST METAHISTORIES | 135 |
III THE TRACE OF THE HOLOCAUST | 247 |
Conclusion | 339 |
| 347 | |
| 365 | |
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argues argument asks attempt Auschwitz become begins Browning calls camps central chapter claim clear clearly comes concept context course critics culture death debate Derrida describes developed discourse discussion ethical example existence experience explain face fact fiction final Final Solution Friedländer genre German Goldhagen happened Heidegger historians Holocaust human idea identification identity important issues Jewish Jews knowledge language leads Levi Levinas Levinas’s limits literature lives London look means memory Michael moral murder narrative nature Nazi never novel object offers particular past perhaps philosophy political position possibility postmodern present question reader reading reason reflects relation representation response reveals seems sense significant simply sort story suffering suggests survivors takes testimony texts things thinking thought tion trace tradition truth turn understanding understood University Press victims writes