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Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History
In this unique collection, Yale literary critic Shoshana Felman and psychoanalyst Dori Laub examine the nature and function of memory and the act of witnessing, both in their general relation to the acts of writing and reading, and in their particular relation to the Holocaust. Moving from the literary to the visual, from the artistic to the autobiographical, and from the psychoanalytic to the historical, the book defines for the first time the trauma of the Holocaust as a radical crisis of witnessing "the unprecedented historical occurrence of...an event eliminating its own witness." Through the alternation of a literary and clinical perspective, the authors focus on the henceforth modified relation between knowledge and event, literature and evidence, speech and survival, witnessing and ethics.
312 pages, Paperback
First published December 13, 1991
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About the author
Shoshana Felman
25books19followersShoshana Felman is an American literary critic and current Woodruff Professor of Comparative Literature and French at Emory University. She was on the faculty of Yale University from 1970 to 2004, where in 1986 she was awarded the Thomas E. Donnelly Professorship of French and Comparative Literature. She specializes in 19th and 20th century French literature, psychoanalysis, trauma and testimony, and law and literature. Felman earned her Ph.D. at the University of Grenoble in France in 1970.
Felman works in the fields of psychoanalytic literary criticism, performativity theory, feminism, Holocaust testimony, and other areas, though her writings frequently question, ironize, or test the limits of the very critical methods being employed. Often in her writing a reversal will occur so that the critical vocabulary gets subjected to and converted into the terms of the literary or cultural object being scrutinized rather than simply settling the meaning of the object; thus in Felman's style of criticism there is no fixed hierarchy of theory over and beyond the reach of the literary object. As such, her methods share an affinity with deconstruction, for which she is sometimes associated with the Yale School and colleagues such as Paul de Man.
Jacques Lacan is a significant influence on Felman and she was among the vanguard of theorists—and perhaps foremost among those addressing Anglophone audiences—to rigorously apply his concepts to the study of literature.
Since the 1990s Felman has written texts on testimony and trauma, particularly in the context of the Holocaust and other collective trauma.
Felman works in the fields of psychoanalytic literary criticism, performativity theory, feminism, Holocaust testimony, and other areas, though her writings frequently question, ironize, or test the limits of the very critical methods being employed. Often in her writing a reversal will occur so that the critical vocabulary gets subjected to and converted into the terms of the literary or cultural object being scrutinized rather than simply settling the meaning of the object; thus in Felman's style of criticism there is no fixed hierarchy of theory over and beyond the reach of the literary object. As such, her methods share an affinity with deconstruction, for which she is sometimes associated with the Yale School and colleagues such as Paul de Man.
Jacques Lacan is a significant influence on Felman and she was among the vanguard of theorists—and perhaps foremost among those addressing Anglophone audiences—to rigorously apply his concepts to the study of literature.
Since the 1990s Felman has written texts on testimony and trauma, particularly in the context of the Holocaust and other collective trauma.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 2, 2016
If you're a human person on this planet, you should read this book.
March 29, 2017
Alustuseks üks pisimärkus: selle raamatu kaasautor Felmani kõrval on psühhiaater Dori Laub. Aga nüüd olulisest.
Tahan seda raamatut soovitada kõigile, kes on vähegi huvi tundnud väärt maailmakirjanduse ja 20. sajandi ajaloo, eriti selle kõige mustemate peatükkide vastu. Eriti aga neile, kes on mõelnud küsimuste üle, nagu kuidas puutuvad kirjaniku loomingusse tema isiklikud läbielamised ja kuidas toimub kõige üldisemalt loomingu ja tõeliselt raskete kogemuste ja kannatuste omavaheline läbimäng. Või ehk isegi: Milleks üldse kirjutada?
Autorid pakuvad värskeid ja läbivalgustavaid tõlgendusi Dostojevski ja Camus' loomingu kohta, mis on eriti tänuväärne, sest praegusel ajal levib tendents lugeda neid kui mingisuguse absoluutselt fundamentaalse inimloomuse kirjeldajaid. Felman ja Laub suudavad aga nende autorite eluloolised küsimused produktiivsel viisil oma tõlgendusse hõlmata, seejuures teoste tähendust liigselt taandamata ja vaesestamata, mis on imetlust äratav saavutus.
Väga inspireeriv on ka delikaatne ja süvenev essee olulise Ühendriikidesse emigreerunud flaami kirjandusteadlase Paul deMani kohta.
Tõeline intellekti ja empaatiavõime tour de force.
Tahan seda raamatut soovitada kõigile, kes on vähegi huvi tundnud väärt maailmakirjanduse ja 20. sajandi ajaloo, eriti selle kõige mustemate peatükkide vastu. Eriti aga neile, kes on mõelnud küsimuste üle, nagu kuidas puutuvad kirjaniku loomingusse tema isiklikud läbielamised ja kuidas toimub kõige üldisemalt loomingu ja tõeliselt raskete kogemuste ja kannatuste omavaheline läbimäng. Või ehk isegi: Milleks üldse kirjutada?
Autorid pakuvad värskeid ja läbivalgustavaid tõlgendusi Dostojevski ja Camus' loomingu kohta, mis on eriti tänuväärne, sest praegusel ajal levib tendents lugeda neid kui mingisuguse absoluutselt fundamentaalse inimloomuse kirjeldajaid. Felman ja Laub suudavad aga nende autorite eluloolised küsimused produktiivsel viisil oma tõlgendusse hõlmata, seejuures teoste tähendust liigselt taandamata ja vaesestamata, mis on imetlust äratav saavutus.
Väga inspireeriv on ka delikaatne ja süvenev essee olulise Ühendriikidesse emigreerunud flaami kirjandusteadlase Paul deMani kohta.
Tõeline intellekti ja empaatiavõime tour de force.
May 16, 2023
A series of essays that raise important questions about the ways in which disruption caused by WWII had psychological implications for people who witnessed that violence. Using Camus's literature, and real-life accounts of the horrors of the Holocaust detailed in 'Shoah', Felman and Laub set out to provide theoretical frameworks to better understand the unspeakable terror that shook the previous century to the core.
March 10, 2020
الفكرة الأساسية لا بأس بها
أسلوب الكتابة اجترها وأعاد تكريرها
الأفضل لو اختزلت جميع الأفكار في مقالة أو اثنتين
أسلوب الكتابة اجترها وأعاد تكريرها
الأفضل لو اختزلت جميع الأفكار في مقالة أو اثنتين
June 30, 2024
the section of this book on Lanzmann's Shoah... so good.
August 30, 2010
lucid prose and excellent analysis. the title tells you exactly what you're going to get. felman rarely lapses into uber-scholar-speak, so her arguments are convincing and easy to follow. recommended for lovers of camus, WWII history, and questions of human rights, witnessing, and art.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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