The struggle for understanding : Elie Wiesel's literary works / edited by Victoria Nesfield and Philip Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nesfield, Victoria

Contributor:

Nesfield, Victoria, 1984- editor.

Smith, Philip, 1983- editor.

Series:

SUNY series in contemporary Jewish literature and culture.

SUNY series in contemporary Jewish literature and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wiesel, Elie, 1928-2016--Criticism and interpretation.

Wiesel, Elie.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (318 pages).

Place of Publication:

Albany, New York : State University of New York Press, [2019]

Summary:

"Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) was one of the most important literary voices to emerge from the Holocaust. The Nazis took the lives of most of his family, destroyed the community in which he was raised, and subjected him to ghettoization, imprisonment in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and a death march. It is remarkable not only that Wiesel survived and found a way to write about his experiences, but that he did so with elegance and profundity. His novels grapple with questions of tradition, memory, trauma, madness, atrocity, and faith. The Struggle for Understanding examines Wiesel's literary, religious, and cultural roots and the indelible impact of the Holocaust on his storytelling. Grouped in sections on Hasidic origins, the role of the Other, theology and tradition, and later works, the chapters cover the entire span of Wiesel's career. Books analyzed include Night, Dawn, The Forgotten, The Gates of the Forest, The Town Beyond the Wall, The Testament, The Sonderberg Case, and Hostage. What emerges is a portrait of Wiesel's work in its full literary richness"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Between fiction and reality: Elie Wiesel's memoirs / Menachem Keren-Kratz

The death of humanity and the need for a glory culture: the existential project of Elie Wiesel / Yakir Englander

The role of the four prophet figures in Night / Mary Catherine Mueller

Embracing madness: Elie Wiesel's madmen and their role in his works / Jennifer Murray

The bystander in Elie Wiesel's The town beyond the wall / Christin Zühlke

Enduring anti-Semitic Christian scripts in Elie Wiesel's The gates of the forest / Lucas Wilson

Stories untold: theology, language and the Hasidic spirit in Elie Wiesel's The gates of the forest / Ariel Evan Mayse

Testifying, writing, and putting God in the dock: Elie Wiesel and the crisis of traditional theodicy / Federico Dal Bo

The importance of memory: Jewish mysticism and preserving history in Elie Wiesel's The forgotten / Eric J. Sterling

Transcultural networks of Holocaust memories in Elie Wiesel's The time of the uprooted / Dana Mihailescu

Wiesel's political vision in Dawn, The testament, and Hostage / Rosemary Horowitz

Allegories of the Holocaust in Elie Wiesel's late fiction: The forgotten, The Sonderberg case and Hostage / Sue Vice.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438475479

1438475470