Obliged by Memory: Literature, Religion, Ethics

Religion, Theology and the Holocaust

by Steven T. Katz (Editor)

Based on a three-day symposium, "The Claims of Memory," this volume conveys the omnipresence of memory in Elie Wiesel's writing and attempts to preserve the flavor of the exchange that took place. It represents several intersecting approaches to the nature of memoir writing; an analysis of contrasting dimensions of memory in victims and persecutors; the ethics of memory; and chronicling of the "memory" of God through key texts in Christian and Jewish traditions. Contents Cynthia Ozick, "The Rights of History and the Rights of Imagination" Susan Suleiman, "Do Facts Matter in Holocaust Memoirs? Wilkomirski/Wiesel" Shlomo Breznitz, "The Advantages of A Psychological Perspective on Memoirs of Trauma" John Silber, "Memory, History, and Ethics" Geoffrey Hartman, "The Morality of Fiction and Elie Wiesel" Jeffrey Mehlman, "Reflections on the Papon Trial" Paula Fredriksen, "Augustine on God and Memory"

188 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 2006

About the author

Steven Theodore Katz is an American philosopher and scholar. He is the director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University in Massachusetts, United States, where he holds the Alvin J. and Shirley Slater Chair in Jewish and Holocaust Studies.