Aharon Appelfeld's fiction : acknowledging the Holocaust / Emily Miller Budick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Budick, E. Miller.

Series:

Jewish literature and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Apelfeld, Aharon--Criticism and interpretation.

Apelfeld, Aharon.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

xix, 195 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2005]

Summary:

How can a fictional text adequately or meaningfully represent the events of the Holocaust? Drawing on philosopher Stanley Cavell's ideas about "acknowledgment" as a respectful attentiveness to the world, Emily Miller Budick develops a penetrating philosophical analysis of major works by internationally prominent Israeli writer Aharon Appelfeld. Through sensitive discussions of Appelfeld's novels Badenheim 1939, The Iron Tracks, The Age of Wonders, and Tzili, and his autobiographical work The Story of a Life, Budick reveals the compelling art with which Appelfeld renders the sights, sensations, and experiences of European Jewish life preceding, during, and after the Second World War. Budick argues that it is through acknowledging the incompleteness of our knowledge and understanding of the catastrophe that Appelfeld's fiction produces not only its stunning aesthetic power but its affirmation and faith in both the human and the divine. This beautifully written book provides a moving introduction to the work of an important and powerful writer and an enlightening meditation on how fictional texts deepen our understanding of historical events.

Contents:

Acknowledgment and the human condition : historical, psychoanalytic, and philosophical approaches to writing on the Holocaust

Literature, ideology, and the measure of moral freedom : Badenheim 1939

Fear, trembling, and the pathway to God : The iron tracks

The conditions that condition this utterly specific people: The age of wonders

Religious faith and the "question of the human" : Tzili : the story of a life

Imagination, memory, and the storied life : The story of a life.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [181]-[191]) and index.

ISBN:

0253344921

OCLC:

56493645