Witnessing the Disaster: Essays on Representation and the Holocaust (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780299183646)

Witnessing the Disaster examines how histories, films, stories and novels, memorials and 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 susceptibility of survivor accounts to faulty memory and the vestiges of trauma make them any more or 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 aim to move past the notion that the Holocaust as an event defies representation. They look at specific cases of Holocaust representation and consider their effect, their structure, their authenticity, and the kind of knowledge they produce. Taken together they consider the tension between history and memory, the vexed problem of eyewitness testimony and its status as evidence, and the ethical imperatives of Holocaust representation.

Author: Michael Bernard-Donals
ISBN-10: 0299183645
ISBN-13: 9780299183646
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Language: English
Published: 10/06/2003
Pages: 317
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.96lbs
Size: 9.28h x 5.90w x 0.73d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2004 pg. 2040