What is the role of survivor testimony in Holocaust remembrance? Today such recollections are considered among the most compelling and important historical sources we have; but this has not always been true. In The Era of the Witness; a concise; rigorously argued; and provocative work of cultural and intellectual history; Annette Wieviorka seeks to answer this surpassingly complex question. She analyzes the conditions under which survivor testimonies have been produced; how they have been received over time; and how the testimonies shaped the construction of history and collective memory. Wieviorka discerns three successive phases in the evolution of the roles and images of the Holocaust witness. The first phase is marked by the testimony left by those who did not survive the Holocaust but managed nevertheless to record their experiences. The second; most important; phase is centered on the Eichmann trial; which for Wieviorka is the moment (1961–1962) when a broad cultural deafness to survivors' stories was replaced by the image of the witness as "bearer of history." The author follows the changing nature of the witness into a third phase; which she calls "the era of the witness." Especially concerned with the pedagogical and political uses to which survivor testimony has been put; Wieviorka examines factors that determine when and how survivor testimonies are incorporated into the larger narrative of the Holocaust; according it a privileged place in our understanding. By exploring the ways in which the Holocaust is remembered; The Era of the Witness also deepens our understanding of how testimony can help to define not only twentieth-century history but also more recent episodes of mass killing that are only now "becoming history."
#13918522 in Books 1997-06Original language:English 9.75 x 6.50 x 1.00l; #File Name: 0801432499297 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. An essential book in Caribbean historyBy CustomerThis is a really key book if you want to understand the culture and history of the Caribbean. Burton successfully takes us beyond the question of African Survivals and European impositions; and gives us a key for thinking in new ways about the Caribbean as a place in itself. Burton writes clearly and there is little jargon to get in the way of his innovative thoughts on how culture really worked under slavery and then emancipation. Anyone working in the Caribbean or the Atlantic margins of Central America needs to read this book. And if you are thinking about ex-colonial countries anywhere in the world (the USA for example); you will find a lot of innovative and helpful ideas here.
