The Holocaust in the Central European Literatures and Cultures / Der Holocaust in den mitteleuropaischen Literaturen und kulturen: Problems of ... and Culture in Central and Eastern Europe) - Tapa blanda

Relating the Holocaust to poetic and aesthetic phenomena has often been considered taboo, as only authentic testimony, documents, or at least 'unliterary', prosaic approaches were seen as appropriate. However, from the very beginning of Holocaust literature and culture, there were tendencies towards literarization, poetization, and ornamentalization. Nowadays, aesthetic approaches-also in provocative, taboo-breaking ways-are more and more frequently encountered and seen as important ways to evoke the attention required to keep the cataclysm alive in popular memory. The essays in this volume use examples predominantly from Polish, Czech, and German Holocaust literature and culture to discuss this controversial subject. Topics include the poetry of concentration camp detainees, lyrical poetry about the Holocaust, poetic tendencies in narrative literature and drama, ornamental prose about the Holocaust, and the devices and functions of aestheticization in Holocaust literature and culture.

Reinhard Ibler is a professor of Slavonic literary studies at the University of Giessen. His main interests are Czech, Russian, and Polish literature of the 19th and 20th century, literary theory, and Holocaust literature.