The terror of our days
Subtitle: four American poets respond to the Holocaust
By: Harriet L. Parmet.
Publisher: Lehigh University Press; Associated University Presses
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Bethlehem, [Pa.]; London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 268
Subjects: Plath, Sylvia -- Criticism and interpretation.; Heyen, William, 1940- -- Criticism and interpretation.; Stern, Gerald, 1925- -- Criticism and interpretation.; Rothenberg, Jerome, 1931- -- Criticism and interpretation.; American poetry -- 20th century -- History and criticism.; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature.; Literature and society -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; World War, 1939-1945 -- United States -- Literature and the war.; Jews in literature.
Description: "The Holocaust remains incomprehensible to the world at large and without a compelling claim on most people's lives. By contrast the term "Holocaust" occupies a central place in Jewish vocabulary, and it is kept current in American letters and film. This book reflects on and analyzes poetry by four contemporary Americans - Sylvia Plath, William Heyen, Gerald Stern, and Jerome Rothenberg - none of whom directly experienced the war of annihilation directed against European Jewry.

For these poets, who must accommodate what they cannot ignore or deny, writing becomes a moral obligation as commemoration, catharsis, atonement, history, insistence on human sensitivities, resistance to brutalization, indifference, and flight from consequences."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 251-263) and index.
Based on the author's doctoral dissertation (Lehigh University).