History and Memory after Auschwitz

The relations between memory and history have recently become a subject of contention, and the implications of that debate are particularly troubling for aesthetic, ethical, and political issues. Dominick LaCapra focuses on the interactions among history, memory, and ethicopolitical concerns as they emerge in the aftermath of the Shoah. Particularly notable are his analyses of Albert Camus's novella The Fall, Claude Lanzmann's film Shoah, and Art Spiegelman's "comic book" Maus. LaCapra also considers the Historians' Debate in the aftermath of German reunification and the role of psychoanalysis in historical understanding and critical theory. In six essays, LaCapra addresses a series of related questions. Are there experiences whose traumatic nature blocks understanding and disrupts memory while producing belated effects that have an impact on attempts to address the past? Do some events present moral and representational issues even for groups or individuals not directly involved in them? Do those more directly involved have special responsibilities to the past and the way it is remembered in the present? Can or should historiography define itself in a purely scholarly and professional way that distances it from public memory and its ethical implications? Does art itself have a special responsibility with respect to traumatic events that remain invested with value and emotion?

LaCapra demands that we not shy away from making judgments and applying to scholarly research and teaching a rigorous and normative code of ethics, one that not only transforms the institutions in which we work, but also facilitates communication between those within and outside the academy. It is refreshing to be reminded of this by LaCapra in such eloquent language. LaCapra has laid out the groundwork upon which we can test the relations between history and memory after Auschwitz., Concerned primarily with the generations of individuals who did not experience Nazi horror directly yet who have lived with its memory all of their lives, the book launches a thoughtful probe into some of the ensuing problematics.... LaCapra's admission, that memory work even succeeds against the grain of temporal progression, is key to understanding the power with which memory and history proceed. And in History and Memory after Auschwitz, he displays that paradox in compelling detail., LaCapra's argument that Camus must be read in light of the Holocaust is definitely thought-provoking., LaCapra's conclusions are convincing.... A rewarding... intellectual exercise., Profoundly thoughtful and humane reflections on a subject of utmost importance, not only to Jews and Jewish culture, but to Western culture itself.

Dominick LaCapra is Bryce and Edith Bowmar Professor in the Humanities, and Director of the Society for the Humanities, at Cornell University. He is the editor of two books and the author of nine books published by Cornell, including Representing the Holocaust.