Traumatic Encounters

Paul Eisenstein

Description

Traumatic Encounters argues for an alternative memorial path in Holocaust and cultural studies—one that shows the vital necessity of thinking in a universal way about an event like the Holocaust. Relying on Hegel's notion that the particular is already universal, Eisenstein shows how the encounter with trauma transpires not in the refusal of a universalizing gesture but rather in its wholesale embrace. This embrace results in a recognition involving the trauma that conditions the possibility of history in the first place—a structural trauma immune to historicization that Hegel and psychoanalysis place at the heart of subjectivity and community. This encounter with structural trauma is at the center of four titles that Eisenstein examines: Spielberg's Schindler's List, D. M. Thomas's The White Hotel, Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, and David Grossman's See Under: Love

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Holocaust Memory and Hegel

2. Obsession and the Meaning of Jewish Rescue: Oskar Schindler as Spirit

3. Hysteria as Deferral: The White Hotel and the Idea of Death

4. Leverkuhn as Witness: The Holocaust in Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus

5. History as/and Paranoia: David Grossman's See Under: Love

Conclusion

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Literary theory
• The Holocaust

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791486382
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

eisenstein

I traumatic encounters suny traumatic encounters holocaust representation and the hegelian subject

paul eisenstein

TRAUMATIC ENCOUNTERS

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TRAUMATIC ENCOUNTERS

Holocaust Representation and the Hegelian Subject

Paul Eisenstein

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2003 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production by Judith Block Marketing by Michael Campochiaro

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Eisenstein, Paul. Traumatic encounters : Holocaust representation and the Hegelian subject/ Paul Eisenstein. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-5799-0 (alk. paper)—ISBN 0-7914-5800-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)  1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945), in literature. 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Historiography—Philosophy. 3. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770–1831. 4. Schindler’s list (Motion picture) 5. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945), in motion pictures. 6. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)— Influence. I. Title.

PN56.H55 E48 2003 809'.93358—dc21

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2002030969

For Mac Davis

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Obsession and the Meaning of Jewish Rescue: Oskar Schindler as Spirit

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Hysteria as Deferral:The White Hotelthe Idea of Death and

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Notes

Index

Conclusion

Holocaust Memory and Hegel

Leverkühn as Witness: The Holocaust in Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus

Acknowledgments

Contents

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History as/and Paranoia: David Grossman’sSee Under: Love143

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Introduction

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Acknowledgments

Parts of chapter 1, “Holocaust Memory and Hegel,” appeared inHistory and Memory 11.2 (Winter 1999): 5–36, and an earlier version of chapter 4, “Leverkühn as Witness: The Holocaust in Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus,” appeared inGerman Quarterly(Fall 1997): 325– 70.4 346. At a number of stages in this book’s development, I have been the beneficiary of timely responses, discussions, suggestions, and support. I owe an initial debt of gratitude to the PLH reading group at Ohio State, particularly Ken Petri, Eleni Mavromatidou, Nathan Moore, and David Humphries, for their political commitment to theory and philosophy. I am indebted to Hilary Neroni, for archival work that assisted the development of chapter 2, for her conversations regarding theory and film, and for her friendship and support. I would like also to thank the librarians at Otterbein’s Courtright Memorial Library, particularly Patti Rothermich and Allen Reichert, for their exceedingly generous help and assistance. For their help in moving the manuscript toward publication, I would like to thank James Peltz, Lisa Chesnel, Laura Glenn, and Judith Block at SUNY Press. For reading many drafts, with genuine care, insight, and enthusi- asm, I would like to thank two exemplary teachers and friends, Debra Moddelmog and Marlene Longenecker. My deepest thanks to Mac Davis, whose own commitment to phi- losophy, history, trauma, and ethics provided the initial fuel for this project and was a consistent source of its sustenance. This book is dedicated to him for the decisive shift in my own education that led ultimately to its writing. Without Todd McGowan, this book would never have been written. For his companionship in the world of ideas, and for his commitment to strengthening this project from its beginning to its end, I will be forever grateful. His friendship has made all the difference.

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