Volume 53, Issue 4 (2011) Transcultural Negotiations of Holocaust Memory

Introduction

This special issue gathers a number of essays analyzing cultural artifacts — video testimonies, literary texts, historical accounts, and political polemics - that thematize the problematic of transcultural Holocaust remembrance outlined here. They approach this topic from aesthetic, historical, political, and ethical perspectives, examining the ways in which the memory of the Holocaust is invoked, mobilized, and represented; exploring the meaning of the new perspectives on the past that are opened up; and studying the ethicopolitical stakes involved in the reconfiguration of culturally prevalent concepts and frameworks of memory. The overall objective of this collection is to provide further insight into the value, limitations, and pitfalls of the comparative study of Holocaust memory, with particular attention to the central role the Holocaust has come to play in efforts to conceptualize, legitimize, or marginalize experiences of suffering across the globe.