The Holocaust and the Challenges of Representation

doi:10.1017/9781108990172.016

14 - The Holocaust and the Challenges of Representation

from Part III - Culture and Ideas

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 May 2025

Michael Rothberg

Edited by

Laura Jockusch and

Devin O. Pendas

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Laura Jockusch: Affiliation:
Brandeis University, Massachusetts
Devin O. Pendas: Affiliation:
Boston College

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Summary

In the 1990s, the challenges of representing the (perhaps, arguably) unrepresentable horror of the Holocaust were hotly debated. The issue still poses crucial theoretical questions that have animated a wide array of both scholarly and aesthetic responses. One might think, for instance, of the very different representational strategies adopted by Claude Lanzmann in Shoah and Steven Spielberg in Schindler’s List as marking two ends of the spectrum on how to represent the Holocaust. This chapter articulates the theoretical terrain upon which Holocaust representation unfolds and, in this respect, serves as a theoretical companion to the topic-specific culture chapters that follow.

Keywords

Holocaust Memory Literature Poetry Art Theodor Adorno Hayden White Saul Friedländer Schindler’s List Claude Lanzmann

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of the Holocaust , pp. 332 - 352

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108990172.016 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2025

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