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...

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.

Profoundly thoughtful and humane reflections on a subject of utmost importance, not only to Jews and Jewish culture, but to Western culture itself.

LaCapra's conclusions are convincing.... A rewarding... intellectual exercise.

LaCapra's argument that Camus must be read in light of the Holocaust is definitely thought-provoking.

Barbie Zelizer, University of Pennsylvania:

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 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.

Saul Friedlander, author of Memory, History, and the Extermination of the Jews of Europe:

With the publication of History and Memory after Auschwitz, Dominick LaCapra has become the most sensitive and penetrating interpreter of the highly complex and difficult issues raised by the representation of the Holocaust.

Geoffrey Hartman, author of The Longest Shadow: In the Aftermath of the Holocaust:

This is the work of a distinguished mind with a considerable power of assimilation and synthesis. In essays unified by subject matter and intellectual style, History and Memory after Auschwitz focuses not so much on describing or even understanding the Holocaust as on the appropriate 'subject position' of those born afterwards and still close enough to be haunted by the event. LaCapra not only makes it clear how complex the act of reception is in this case but also how easily it can go wrong, and what concepts may help us to avoid error.