Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-317) and index.
Contents:
Part One: Reflections on Holocaust Representation and the Nonrepresentable: Theoretical Considerations -- Part Two: The Literary Transcendence of Holocaust Representation: Speaking the Ineffable -- Part Three: The Photographic Transcendence of Holocaust Representation: Revealing the Invisible.
Summary:
Many books focus on issues of Holocaust representation, but few address why the Holocaust in particular poses such a representational problem. David Patterson draws from Emmanuel Leninas's contention that the Good cannot be represented. He argues that the assault on the Good is equally nonrepresentable and this nonrepresentable aspect of the Holocaust is its distinguishing feature. Utilizing Jewish religious thought, Patterson examines how the literary word expresses the ineffable and how the photographic image manifests the invisible. Where the Holocaust is concerned, representation is a matter not of imagination but of ethical implication, not of what is was like but of what must be done. Ultimately Patterson provides a deeper understanding of why the Holocaust itself is indefinable--not only as an evil but also as a fundamental assault on the very categories of good adn evil affirmed over centuries of Jewish teaching and testimony--back cover.
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