History and Memory after Auschwitz / Edition 1

by Dominick LaCapra

Overview

The relations between memory and history have recently become a subject of contention, and the implications of that debate are particularly troubling for aesthetic, ethical, and political issues. Dominick LaCapra focuses on the interactions among history, memory, and ethicopolitical concerns as they emerge in the aftermath of the Shoah. Particularly notable are his analyses of Albert Camus's novella The Fall, Claude Lanzmann's film Shoah, and Art Spiegelman's "comic book" Maus. LaCapra also considers the Historians' Debate in the aftermath of German reunification and the role of psychoanalysis in historical understanding and critical theory. In six essays, LaCapra addresses a series of related questions. Are there experiences whose traumatic nature blocks understanding and disrupts memory while producing belated effects that have an impact on attempts to address the past? Do some events present moral and representational issues even for groups or individuals not directly involved in them? Do those more directly involved have special responsibilities to the past and the way it is remembered in the present? Can or should historiography define itself in a purely scholarly and professional way that distances it from public memory and its ethical implications? Does art itself have a special responsibility with respect to traumatic events that remain invested with value and emotion?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801484964
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	03/30/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)
Lexile:	1550L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Dominick LaCapra is Bryce and Edith Bowmar Professor in the Humanities, and Director of the Society for the Humanities, at Cornell University. He is the editor of two books and the author of nine books published by Cornell, including Representing the Holocaust.

What People are Saying About This

Geoffrey Hartman

This is the work of a distinguished mind with a considerable power of assimilation and synthesis. In essays unified by subject matter and intellectual style, History and Memory after Auschwitz focuses not so much on describing or even understanding the Holocaust as on the appropriate 'subject position' of those born afterwards and still close enough to be haunted by the event. LaCapra not only makes it clear how complex the act of reception is in this case but also how easily it can go wrong, and what concepts may help us to avoid error.

Saul Friedlander

With the publication of History and Memory after Auschwitz, Dominick LaCapra has become the most sensitive and penetrating interpreter of the highly complex and difficult issues raised by the representation of the Holocaust.

Editorial Reviews

Concerned primarily with the generations of individuals who did not experience Nazi horror directly yet who have lived with its memory all of their lives, the book launches a thoughtful probe into some of the ensuing problematics.... LaCapra's admission, that memory work even succeeds against the grain of temporal progression, is key to understanding the power with which memory and history proceed. And in History and Memory after Auschwitz, he displays that paradox in compelling detail.

--Barbie Zelizer, University of Pennsylvania "Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature"

LaCapra demands that we not shy away from making judgments and applying to scholarly research and teaching a rigorous and normative code of ethics, one that not only transforms the institutions in which we work, but also facilitates communication between those within and outside the academy. It is refreshing to be reminded of this by LaCapra in such eloquent language. LaCapra has laid out the groundwork upon which we can test the relations between history and memory after Auschwitz.

-- "Holocaust and Genocide Studies"

LaCapra's argument that Camus must be read in light of the Holocaust is definitely thought-provoking.

-- "Jewish Book World"

LaCapra's conclusions are convincing.... A rewarding... intellectual exercise.

-- "Times Literary Supplement"

Profoundly thoughtful and humane reflections on a subject of utmost importance, not only to Jews and Jewish culture, but to Western culture itself.

--Emily Miller Budick, The Hebrew University "Studies in Contemporary Jewry, An Annual"

From the Publisher

"With the publication of History and Memory after Auschwitz, Dominick LaCapra has become the most sensitive and penetrating interpreter of the highly complex and difficult issues raised by the representation of the Holocaust."

Saul Friedlander

"This is the work of a distinguished mind with a considerable power of assimilation and synthesis. In essays unified by subject matter and intellectual style, History and Memory after Auschwitz focuses not so much on describing or even understanding the Holocaust as on the appropriate 'subject position' of those born afterwards and still close enough to be haunted by the event. LaCapra not only makes it clear how complex the act of reception is in this case but also how easily it can go wrong, and what concepts may help us to avoid error."

Geoffrey Hartman

"Profoundly thoughtful and humane reflections on a subject of utmost importance, not only to Jews and Jewish culture, but to Western culture itself."

Studies in Contemporary Jewry, An Annual - Emily Miller Budick

"LaCapra's conclusions are convincing.... A rewarding... intellectual exercise."

Times Literary Supplement

"LaCapra's argument that Camus must be read in light of the Holocaust is definitely thought-provoking."

Jewish Book World

"Concerned primarily with the generations of individuals who did not experience Nazi horror directly yet who have lived with its memory all of their lives, the book launches a thoughtful probe into some of the ensuing problematics.... LaCapra's admission, that memory work even succeeds against the grain of temporal progression, is key to understanding the power with which memory and history proceed. And in History and Memory after Auschwitz, he displays that paradox in compelling detail."

Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature - Barbie Zelizer

"LaCapra demands that we not shy away from making judgments and applying to scholarly research and teaching a rigorous and normative code of ethics, one that not only transforms the institutions in which we work, but also facilitates communication between those within and outside the academy. It is refreshing to be reminded of this by LaCapra in such eloquent language. LaCapra has laid out the groundwork upon which we can test the relations between history and memory after Auschwitz."

Holocaust and Genocide Studies