Fictions of Eichmann: the authentic self, authenticity, and the facts of atrocity. Issue 7 (9th August 2019)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Fictions of Eichmann: the authentic self, authenticity, and the facts of atrocity. Issue 7 (9th August 2019)
- Main Title:
- Fictions of Eichmann: the authentic self, authenticity, and the facts of atrocity
- Authors:
- Donig, Deb
- Abstract:
- ABSTRACT: This essay chronicles a turning point in the concept of legal evidence as it is used to establish the reality of atrocity. In the wake of the Eichmann trial that began in 1961 and Hannah Arendt's coverage of the trial in her landmark thesis, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, the discourse of 'authenticity' became central to representing atrocity, as atrocity became enfolded within legal discourse, rendered in terms of legal concepts of truth and verification. Yet the concept of 'authenticity' itself became contested, torn between the demands of aesthetic representation on the one hand and legal representation on the other. Using current research on Eichmann alongside my archival investigation into Arendt and Eichmann's papers, I juxtapose Arendt's version of the 'real' Eichmann, drafted during the Jerusalem trial in 1961, with Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s character, Walter Campbell Jr., who bears an uncanny resemblance to Eichmann in his 1961 Mother Night . Doubling the historical figure of Eichmann, Mother Night oscillates between fictional and factual discourse in its attempt to locate an authentic representation of atrocity. I argue that in the attempt to determine and assess the facts of atrocity, fiction may itself produce a type of authentic factuality.
- Is Part Of:
- Textual practice. Volume 33:Issue 7(2019)
- Journal:
- Textual practice
- Issue:
- Volume 33:Issue 7(2019)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 33, Issue 7 (2019)
- Year:
- 2019
- Volume:
- 33
- Issue:
- 7
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2019-0033-0007-0000
- Page Start:
- 1243
- Page End:
- 1262
- Publication Date:
- 2019-08-09
- Subjects:
- Hannah Arendt -- Adolf Eichmann -- Kurt Vonnegut -- Jr -- testimony -- Holocaust
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- History and criticism -- Periodicals
Criticism -- Periodicals
Criticism, Textual -- Periodicals
Semiotics -- Periodicals
801.95 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rtpr20/current ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/0950236X.asp ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/0950236X.2017.1417895 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0950-236X
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 8813.780460
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 11350.xml