The Holocaust and the Postmodern argues that postmodernism, especially understood in the light of the work of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, is a response to the Holocaust. This way of thinking offers new perspectives on Holocaust testimony, literature, historiography, and post-Holocaust philosophy. While postmodernism is often derided for being either playful and superficial or obscure and elitist, this book argues and demonstrates its commitment both to the past and to ethics.
Dealing with Holocaust testimony, including the work of Primo Levi and Eli Wiesel, with the memoirs of "second generation" survivors and with recent Holocaust literature, including Anne Michael's Fugitive Pieces, Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated and the false memoir of "Benjamin Wilkomirski," Eaglestone argues for a new way of reading both Holocaust testimony and Holocaust fiction. Through an exploration of Holocaust historiography, the book offers a new approach to debates over truth and memory. Eaglestone argues for the central importance of the Holocaust in understanding the work of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, and goes on to explore what the Holocaust means for rationality, ethics, and for the idea of what it is to be human. Weaving together theory and practice, testimony, literature, history, philosophy, and Holocaust studies, this interdisciplinary book is the first to explore in detail the significance of the Holocaust for postmodernism, and the
significance of postmodernism for understanding the Holocaust.
Industry Reviews
Eaglestone offers a remarkable example of lucid and clear prose...few could fail to benefit from a careful reading of his careful and thorough analysis. Holocaust and Genocide Studies This is a dazzling book that not only analyzes the relationship of postmodern to the Holocaust but discloses the ways that the Holocaust is bound to Western identity. Comparative Literature a superb discussion of the metahistorical polarity between the work of Daniel Goldhagen and Christopher Browning... demonstrates the strengths of postmodernism and establishes Robert Eaglestone as one of its most accomplished practitioners. His book deserves to be read by sceptics and partisans of postmodernism alike. David Cesarani, TLS There can be little doubt that Eaglestone is a fine literary critic, astutely addressing questions that other scholars, more constrained by disciplinary boundaries, have not succeeded in answering. Efraim Sicher, European Legacy Eaglestone's book is surely the definitive work on this subject and it will remain so for a long time. The breadth and scope of his knowledge of literature on the Holocaust and of postmodern fiction and criticism, not to mention history and historiography, is truly staggering... Scholars of the postmodern, Holocaust literature, and history will find this a gold mine. Essential. Choice ... [this] book offers a fascinating typology of the genre of Holocaust testimony... Eaglestone offers a new and literary view of testimony which he links with postmodernism through their shared concern with identity and self-construction. Sue Vice, Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History The book is a very wide-ranging examination of the place of the Holocaust in contmeporary cultural discourse. Sue Vice, Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History The breadth of topics covered, coupled with the author's erudition, makes The Holocaust and the Postmodern an invaluable resource for any course on the Holocaust. Nicholas Chare, Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, Vol. 14
