Language:
English
Year of publication:
1995
Titel der Quelle:
Poetics Today
Angaben zur Quelle:
16,2 (1995) 283-299
Keywords:
Rorty, Richard
;
Holocaust denial
;
Holocaust (Jewish theology)
Abstract:
Analyzes Richard Rorty's notion of pragmatism (expounded in "Contingency, Irony and Solidarity, " 1989) as opposed to Paul de Man's concept of the "inhuman" nature of language and history which, by postulating the nonphenomenality and mechanization of language, in fact absolves the author of any responsibility for his intended meaning (de Man was a Nazi collaborator!). According to Rorty, people use a "final vocabulary" to justify or describe their beliefs or actions while others may doubt the validity of these vocabularies and open them to revision. Subsequently, anything can be made to look good or bad, i.e. re-described. Revisionists, who pretend that the Nazi gas chambers never existed, exploit inconsistencies in survivors' testimonies, for example, to re-describe, and in fact to deconstruct and unwrite the Holocaust. Contends that although they have their own vocabulary, they can still be held responsible for what they say.
Note:
On Richard Rorty's theory of pragmatism and the arguments of Holocaust revisionists.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
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