Forgetful memory : representation and remembrance in the wake of the Holocaust / Michael Bernard-Donals.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bernard-Donals, Michael F.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Historiography.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945).

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Influence.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Moral and ethical aspects.

Memory--Social aspects.

Memory.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (214 p.)

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Much of the discussion surrounding the Holocaust and how it can be depicted sixty years later has focused on memory. In Forgetful Memory, Michael Bernard-Donals focuses on the relation between memory and forgetfulness, arguing that memory and forgetfulness cannot be separated but must be examined as they complicate our understanding of the Shoah. Drawing on the work of Josef Yerushalmi, Maurice Blanchot, David Roskies, and especially Emmanuel Levinas, Bernard-Donals explores contemporary representations of the Holocaust in memoirs, novels, and poetry; films and photographs; in museums; and in our contemporary political discourse concerning the Middle East. Ultimately, Forgetful Memory makes the case that we should give up on the idea of memory as a kind of representation, and that we should see it instead as an intersection of remembrance and oblivion, as a kind of writing, where what remains at its margins—what is left unwritten—is at least as important as what is given voice.

Contents:

Pt. I. Memory and forgetting. On the verge of history and memory

Ethics, the immemorial, and writing

Pt. II. Writing and the disaster.

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem" : the poetry of forgetful memory in Palestine

Memory and the image in visual representations of the Holocaust

"Thou shalt not bear false witness" : witness and testimony in the Fragments controversy

Pt. III. Memory and the event. Denials of memory

Conflations of memory; or, what they saw at the Holocaust Museum after 9/11

"Difficult freedom" : Levinas, memory, and politics

Conclusion : forgetful memory and the disaster

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-190) and index.

ISBN:

9780791477182

0791477185

9781441603661

1441603662

OCLC:

316510710