The Era of the Witness
"Wieviorka retraces the evolution of the figure of the Holocaust witness and analyzes the different, and sometimes competing, uses of Holocaust testimonies, with the rigor and clarity that perfectly suits her subject."—Le Monde"A reflection on the production of Holocaust testimonies, their evolution in time, and their part in the construction of the collective memory."—Libération"Written by one of France's leading historians of the Holocaust, The Era of the Witness is a fascinating and readable exploration of the emergence of survivor testimony into the public sphere. Annette Wieviorka's provocative yet sensitive account will be of interest to all who are concerned with the legacies of the Holocaust and other traumatic histories. Jared Stark's beautiful translation makes this essential work accessible to a new audience."—Michael Rothberg, author of Traumatic Realism: The Demands of Holocaust Representation and coeditor of The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings"This book on witnessing itself bears witness to a close, careful, and often difficult engagement with a vast array of testimonies in different genres and media. It raises the question of how empathy and unsettlement provoked by testimonies may be combined with resistance to a cult of intimacy, a confusion of empathy with identification, and an impairment of the critical perspective necessary for writing history."—Dominick LaCapra, Cornell University, author of History in Transit: Experience, Identity, Critical Theory