Representing the Holocaust: History, Theory, Trauma - Softcover

LaCapra, Dominick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801481872 ISBN 13: 9780801481871

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 1996

Synopsis

Defying comprehension, the tragic history of the Holocaust has been alternately repressed and canonized in postmodern Western culture. Recently our interpretation of the Holocaust has been the center of bitter controversies, from debates over Paul de Man's collaborationist journalism and Martin Heidegger’s Nazi past to attempts by some historians to downplay the Holocaust’s significance. A major voice in current historiographical discussions, Dominick LaCapra brings a new clarity to these issues as he examines the intersections between historical events and the theory through which we struggle to understand them.

In a series of essays―three published here for the first time―LaCapra explores the problems faced by historians, critics, and thinkers who attempt to grasp the Holocaust. He considers the role of canon formation and the dynamic of revisionist historiography, as well as critically analyzing responses to the discovery of de Man’s wartime writings. He also discusses Heidegger’s involvement with National Socialism, and he sheds light on postmodernist obsessions with such concepts as loss, agora, dispossession, deferred meaning, and the sublime. Throughout, LaCapra demonstrates that psychoanalysis is not merely a psychology of the individual but that its concepts have sociocultural dimensions and can help us perceive the relationship between the present and the past. Many of our efforts to comprehend the Holocaust, he shows, continue to suffer from the traumatizing effects of its events and require a "working through" of that trauma if we are to gain a more profound understanding of the meaning of the Holocaust.

About this title

Review:

"Profoundly thoughtful and humane reflections on a subject of utmost importance, not only to Jews and Jewish culture, but to Western culture itself."―Emily Miller Budick, The Hebrew University. Studies in Contemporary Jewry

"Representing the Holocaust is a probing analysis of the relations between historiographical, personal, and cultural identity formation in the aftermath of the historical trauma of the Holocaust."―John E. Toews, American Historical Review

"Dominick LaCapra may be the most original intellectual historian writing in America today. LaCapra begins, in this book, to provide a means by which one can critically examine the engagement of the historian/critic with his or her object of study."―Sander L. Gilman, Modern Philology

"Representing the Holocaust is an impressive book that will have a significant impact on the way historians think about the Holocaust and the writing of history. LaCapra's precise and probing study explores the ways that the traumatic event inevitably disrupts the relationship between representation and memory. He writes from the deep conviction that whatever historians might believe, theory is indispensable for them. Indeed, his work best exemplifies the value of theory, setting a standard for historiographical reflection that is not easily matched."―Anson Rabinbach, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art

About the Author:

Dominick LaCapra is Professor Emeritus of History and Comparative Literature and Bowmar Professor Emeritus of Humanistic Studies at Cornell University. He is the author of many books, including History, Literature, Critical Theory; History and Its Limits: Human, Animal, Violence; and History in Transit: Experience, Identity, Critical Theory.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0801481872
• ISBN 13: 9780801481871
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248