Language:
English
Year of publication:
2000
Titel der Quelle:
Storiografia; rivista annuale di storia
Angaben zur Quelle:
4 (2000) 23-38
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Historiography
Abstract:
Presents a philosophical argument on the representability of the Holocaust. After dealing with the concept of "modernity and the disaster", discusses the relation of "counterfactuals" (i.e. possibilities) to Holocaust studies. Stresses that realism is inadequate for representing events of modern disaster, which totally confound the experiences and expectations of death and time. Notes how Holocaust denial has been allowed to define the criterion of "truth" vs. "falsehood" as the basis for evaluating accounts of the Holocaust. Instead, recommends the value of "subjunctive" or possible history, i.e. what might have but did not happen, as conveyed in fiction. This leaves room for ethics, which "realistic" history avoids. Does not advocate the total abandonment of "realistic" history, but aims at depriving it of its apparent monopoly on "truth".
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