Witnessing the Disaster: Essays on Representation and the Holocaust - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0299183645 ISBN 13: 9780299183646

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003

Synopsis

Histories, films, stories, novels, memorials, museums and survivor testimonies involve problems of witnessing: how do those who survived, and those who lived long after the Holocaust, make clear to us what happened? How can we distinguish between more and less authentic accounts? Are histories more adequate descriptors of the horror than narrative? Does the susceptability of survivor accounts to faulty memory and the vestiges of trauma make them less useful as instruments of witness? And how do we authenticate their accuracy without giving those who deny the Holocaust a small but dangerous foothold? These essayists move past the idea that the Holocaust defies representation. They consider the ethical imperatives of Holocaust representation and the tension between history and memory.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Bernard-Donals is professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Richard Glejzer is associate professor of English at North Central College in Illinois. They coedited Between Witness and Testimony.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0299183645
• ISBN 13: 9780299183646
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328
• Editor: Bernard-Donals Michael, Glejzer Richard