Multidirectional Memory and the Universalization of the Holocaust

Michael Rothberg

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Marguerite Duras's "Les Deux Ghettos" employs an aesthetic of juxtaposition: taking the form of two interconnected interviews, it brings together memory of the Holocaust and recent developments in the ongoing struggle between France and the Algerian independence movement, the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN). Duras's article approaches the massacre in roundabout fashion, through a historical analogy between Nazi policy and the context of Fifth Republic France. His article might be said to illustrate one of the central arguments of Jeffrey Alexander's chapter. Sometime around 1961, the Nazi genocide of European Jews went from being perceived as a terrible wartime atrocity with limited implications to being an event uniquely suited to illuminating historical evil wherever it cropped up. Thus, Alexander would most likely see in "Les Deux Ghettos" an exemplification of moral universality.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationRemembering the Holocaust
Subtitle of host publicationA Debate
PublisherOxford University Press
ISBN (Electronic)9780199944064
ISBN (Print)9780195326222
DOIs
StatePublished - May 24 2012

Keywords

  • Algeria
  • FLN
  • France
  • Jeffrey Alexander
  • Les Deux Ghettos
  • Marguerite Duras
  • Moral university
  • Nazi policy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Social Sciences

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