Disenfranchised narratives. Slavoj Žižek reads Jorge Semprún. Issue 3 (3rd July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pabst, Stephan
• Is Part Of: Holocaust studies. Volume 27:Issue 3(2021)
• Page Start: 371
• Page End: 386
• Publication Date: 2021-07-03
• Subjects: Holocaust literature -- trauma -- Modernity -- Slavoj Žižek -- Jorge Semprún; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 940.5318
• DOI: 10.1080/17504902.2020.1769370
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-4902

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Taking a critical approach to Slavoj Žižek's reading of Jorge Semprún's novel Le Grand Voyage, the paper treats Žižek's observations as being exemplary of a historically inexact usage of the term Holocaust (Literature) that strives to underpin the claims made by a normative poetics of Modernism by implying the existence of a more or less unquestionable interrelationship between Modernism and the Holocaust (experience) that hinges upon the idea of 'trauma.' Reconstructing the political experience behind – and the political ethics prevalent in – Semprún's novel, the paper sets out to question this particular line of reasoning.