What do you think?
Rate this book
Against the Apocalypse: Responses to Catastrophe in Modern Jewish Culture (Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, & Art
This text documents a virtually unknown chapter in the history of the refusal of Jews throughout the ages to surrender. The author employs wide-ranging scholarship to the Holocaust and the memories associated with it, in affirmation of both continuities and violent endings.
388 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1986
26 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 12, 2007
Notes for review:
This collection of essays traces the Jewish response to catastrophe through time from the Babylonian exile through the Holocaust. It highlights the imperfect fit of medieval theodicy to understanding the Holocaust. He addresses the issue as a literary critic, not a psychologist, sociologist nor philosopher.
The book itself is a tour de force. However, to fully appreciate the book and to effectively evaluate his arguments requires a familiarity with a large swath of Yiddish literature.
As a history, the reader needs to be careful. Roskies is writing from the perspective of a literary critic, and he seems to confuse fictionalized accounts with historical reality. He seems to not acknowledge the basic effect of exaggeration for dramatic effect as at work in the fictional accounts of the decline of traditional Jewish society in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The primary value of the book is the intersection between theodicy and aesthetics that he details.
This collection of essays traces the Jewish response to catastrophe through time from the Babylonian exile through the Holocaust. It highlights the imperfect fit of medieval theodicy to understanding the Holocaust. He addresses the issue as a literary critic, not a psychologist, sociologist nor philosopher.
The book itself is a tour de force. However, to fully appreciate the book and to effectively evaluate his arguments requires a familiarity with a large swath of Yiddish literature.
As a history, the reader needs to be careful. Roskies is writing from the perspective of a literary critic, and he seems to confuse fictionalized accounts with historical reality. He seems to not acknowledge the basic effect of exaggeration for dramatic effect as at work in the fictional accounts of the decline of traditional Jewish society in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The primary value of the book is the intersection between theodicy and aesthetics that he details.
Displaying 1 of 1 review