THE HOLOCAUST AND THE POSTMODERN by Robert Eaglestone ( 9780199265930 )

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Title:

THE HOLOCAUST AND THE POSTMODERN

By:

Robert Eaglestone

Format:

Hardback

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£200.00

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£175.00

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£25.00

ISBN 10:

0199265933

ISBN 13:

9780199265930

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Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

9 December, 2004

Pages:

384

Description:

This book argues that postmodernism is a response to the Holocaust, and because of this, offers a new range of perspectives. This book offers new ways of looking at testimony, like Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel, and recent Holocaust fiction like Anne Michael's Fugitive Pieces, Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated and the false memoir of Benjamin Wilkomirski. It explores controversies in Holocaust history, such as the debate overDaniel Jonah Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners and the David Irving/Deborah Lipstadt Libel trial. It looks at the importance of the Holocaust for recent philosophy and what the Holocaust means for reason, ethics, and for being human.

Synopsis:

The 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 past and 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 a new 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.

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Imprint:

Oxford University Press

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