Scars of the Spirit
Subtitle: The Struggle Against Inauthenticity
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: August 17, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9780312295691
Subjects: Literary studies: general; The Holocaust; Western philosophy, from c 1900 -; Philosophy; English; Literary Criticism; Movements - Humanism; Philosophy / General; History & Surveys - General; Jewish - General; Authenticity (Philosophy)
First sentence: "Spirit" and "authenticity" are word concepts that cannot be saved from their own pathos.
Description: "In this collection of essays, noted critic Geoffrey Hartman raises the essential question of where we can find the real or authentic in today's world, and how this affects the way we understand our human predicament.

Hartman explores such issues as the fantasy of total information and perfect communication encouraged by the internet, the biographical excesses of tell-all talk shows that serve to shore up a personal sense of unreality, the tendency to motivate violence in the name of some moral or spiritual necessity, and the increased difficulty of distinguishing between fakery and truth in confessional and testimonial writing.

Underlying the entire book is the crucial issue of how the trauma of the Holocaust and other genocidal acts, brought home to us almost daily by the media, is shaping our quest for agency, identity, and meaning."--BOOK JACKET.