The conflagration of community : fiction before and after Auschwitz / J. Hillis Miller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Miller, J. Hillis (Joseph Hillis), 1928-2021.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924--Criticism and interpretation.

Kafka, Franz.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature.

Literature, Modern--20th century--History and criticism.

Literature, Modern.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (331 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"After Auschwitz to write even a single poem is barbaric." The Conflagration of Community challenges Theodor Adorno's famous statement about aesthetic production after the Holocaust, arguing for the possibility of literature to bear witness to extreme collective and personal experiences. J. Hillis Miller masterfully considers how novels about the Holocaust relate to fictions written before and after it, and uses theories of community from Jean-Luc Nancy and Derrida to explore the dissolution of community bonds in its wake. Miller juxtaposes readings of books about the Holocaust-Keneally's Schindler's List, McEwan's Black Dogs, Spiegelman's Maus, and Kertész's Fatelessness-with Kafka's novels and Morrison's Beloved, asking what it means to think of texts as acts of testimony. Throughout, Miller questions the resonance between the difficulty of imagining, understanding, or remembering Auschwitz-a difficulty so often a theme in records of the Holocaust-and the exasperating resistance to clear, conclusive interpretation of these novels. The Conflagration of Community is an eloquent study of literature's value to fathoming the unfathomable.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Nancy contra Stevens

2. Foreshadowing's of Auschwitz in Kafka's Writings

3. The Breakdown of Community and the Disabling of Speech Acts in Kafka's The Trial

4. The Castle: No Mitsein, No Verifiable Interpretation

Prologue: Community in Fiction after Auschwitz

5. Three Novels about the Shoah

6. Imre Kertész's Fatelessness: Fiction as Testimony

7. Morrison's Beloved

Coda

Notes

Index of Names, Titles of Works, and Characters

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613242303

9781283242301

1283242303

9780226527239

0226527239

OCLC:

747412404