Language:
English
Year of publication:
2000
Titel der Quelle:
College Literature
Angaben zur Quelle:
27,2 (2000) 1-20
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Historiography
;
Holocaust survivors
Abstract:
Relating to both oral and written Holocaust testimonies, explores the unbridgeable gap between what was witnessed and what can be communicated by testimony. Claims that the historical moment of witnessing is inaccessible. Narratives cannot find a language capable of making the viewer or interviewer see. Witnessing becomes apparent only at points of trauma via gestures and silences, since words fail. The Holocaust teaches us about the limits of knowledge. Suggests that it is only from considering the particularity of a witness's voice that we are able to listen, if not to its meaning, then to the trauma that destroys it.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink