Imagining the Holocaust: Narrative and Memory in Major Holocaust Literary Works [Hardcover]

Daniel R. Schwarz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312173032 | ISBN-13: 978-0312173036 | Publication Date: November 1999 | Edition: 1st

It is a particular feature of Holocaust fictions that we remember them differently than other fictions, and as the historical period recedes, literature helps keep those events alive. In Imagining the Holocaust, Daniel R. Schwarz examines widely read Holocaust narratives that have shaped the way we understand and respond to the events of that time. He begins with first person narratives--Wiesel's Night and Levi's Survival at Auschwitz--and then turns to searingly realistic fictions such as Borowski's This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen before examining the Kafkaesque parables of Appelfeld and the fantastic cartoons of Spiegelman's Maus books. Schwarz argues that as we move further away from the original events, the narratives authors use to render the Holocaust horror evolve to include fantasy and parable, and he shows how diverse audiences respond differently to these highly charged and emotional texts.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Schwarz (English, Cornell Univ.) divides his study of Holocaust literature into sections on memoir, realism, fantasy, and myth, parable, and fable. He describes the difference in techniques and philosophical ideas and covers questions of aesthetics and morals statements in the works by Primo Levi, Tadeusz Borowski, Aharon Appelfeld, Cynthia Ozick, and Bruno Schulz, among others. Jerzy Kosinski's life and work are poignantly explained, as are Art Spiegelman's graphic works. Schwarz is especially good in his discussion of the American popular realism of John Hersey's The Wall, Gerald Green's Holocaust, and William Styron's Sophie's Choice. A discussion of Claude Lanzmann's and Steven Spielberg's films on the Holocaust frame the overall discussion. Recommended for Jewish studies collections. Gene Shaw, NYPL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...[S]hould be considered essential reading....his literary analysis gives us new approaches to studying [the Holocaust]." --Holocaust

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312173032
• ISBN-13: 978-0312173036
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,851,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Holocaust, February 7, 2000

By 

W. Pearce Brown (Ithaca, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imagining the Holocaust: Narrative and Memory in Major Holocaust Literary Works (Hardcover)

Surely there has never been a more gut-wrenching and yet revealing discussion of the nature of human evil than Daniel Schwarz's "Imagining the Holocaust." Mr. Schwarz examines the tragedy not only through the eyes and voices of survivors and the survivors' children, but in the words of novelists in about twenty-five narratives including Wiesel's Night, Levi's Survival in Auschwitz, The Dairy of Anne Frank, Appelfeld's Badenheim 1939, Schwarz-Bart's The Last of the Just, and Spiegelman's cartoon Maus. But when reading Maus, we cannot laugh! Except perhaps as a nervous reflex to the unmitigated horror which is echoed in the voices of the unspeakable tragedy. For even in an event as traumatic as the Holocaust, Schwarz argues that we need to distinguish between what happened and how we remember what happened. Moreover, how we remember and retell the event. For imagination plays a crucial role both in our acts of memory and the act of telling. Imagination is a gift which enables us to see ourselves as "other." And imaginative language, he shows, invades the gates of the unspeakable and creates historical reality. Likewise, Schwarz demonstrates how his authors use imagination and memory to discover courage and faith in the depths of the soul. Even in the Holocaust's "Heart of Darkness." And so it is with this in mind that I can do no better than wholeheartedly recommend Mr. Schwarz's "Imagining the Holocaust." --W. Pearce Brown Ithaca, New York

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Humanist Helps Us Understand, March 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Imagining the Holocaust: Narrative and Memory in Major Holocaust Literary Works (Hardcover)

Writing about the Holocaust, Schwarz argues, is not just a literary but a moral problem. Each of his fifteen well-crafted chapters is a miniature lesson in the ethics of representing the unrepresentable. He takes us through the politics and the pitfalls and the artistic achievements of the major Holocaust narratives, and he does so with the sure hand of a master critic and the self-awareness of a true humanist. This is a book to read and to re-read.