History, Literature, Critical Theory

Dominick Lacapra

Description

In History, Literature, Critical Theory, Dominick LaCapra continues his exploration of the complex relations between history and literature, here considering history as both process and representation. A trio of chapters at the center of the volume concern the ways in which history and literature (particularly the novel) impact and question each other. In one of the chapters LaCapra revisits Gustave Flaubert, pairing him with Joseph Conrad. Other chapters pair J. M. Coetzee and W. G. Sebald, Jonathan Littell's novel, The Kindly Ones, and Saul Friedlander's two-volume, prizewinning history Nazi Germany and the Jews. A recurrent motif of the book is the role of the sacred, its problematic status in sacrifice, its virulent manifestation in social and political violence (notably the Nazi genocide), its role or transformations in literature and art, and its multivalent expressions in "postsecular" hopes, anxieties, and quests. LaCapra concludes the volume with an essay on the place of violence in the thought of Slavoj Zizek. In LaCapra's view Zizek's provocative thought "at times has uncanny echoes of earlier reflections on, or apologies for, political and seemingly regenerative, even sacralized violence."

Sujets

• Literary theory
• Historiography

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mai 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801467776
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

 HISTORY, LITERATURE, CRITICAL THEORY

HISTORY, LITERATURE, CRITICAL THEORY

Dominick L a C a p r a

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Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the pub- lisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Firstpublished2013byCornellUniversityPress Firstprinting,CornellPaperbacks,2013

PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data LaCapra, Dominick, 1939– author.  History, literature, critical theory / Dominick LaCapra.  pages cm  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 978-0-8014-5197-3 (cloth : alk. paper) —  ISBN 978-0-8014-7865-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)  1. Literature and history. 2. Literature, Modern— History and criticism—Theory, etc. 3. Fiction— History and criticism—Theory, etc. 4. Violence in literature. 5. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945), in literature. 6. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)— Historiography. I. Title.  PN50.L33 2013  809—dc23 2012047659

Aversionofchapter4appearedinHistory and Theory50 (February, 2011): 71–97. AversionoftheEpilogueappearedinVariations18 (2010): 9–28.

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  Co nt e nt s

Introduction 1 1. The Mutual Interrogation of History and Literature 12 2. The Quest! The Quest! Conrad and Flaubert 31 3. Coetzee, Sebald, and the Narrative of Trauma 54 4. Historical and Literary Approaches to the “Final Solution”: Saul Friedländer and Jonathan Littell 95 5. The Literary, the Historical, and the Sacred: The Question of Nazism 120 Epilogue: Recent Figurations of Trauma and Violence: Tarrying with Ž iž ek 148 Notes165 Index231

 HISTORY, LITERATURE, CRITICAL THEORY