Jean Améry: Beyond The Mind’s Limits

Description

This volume explores themes originating from the work of Jean Améry (1912–1978), a Holocaust survivor and essayist—mainly, ethics and the past, torture and its implications, death and suicide. The volume is interdisciplinary, bringing together contributions from philosophy, psychology, law, and literary studies to illuminate each of the topics from more than one angle. Each essay is a novel contribution, shedding new light on the relevant subject matter and on Jean Améry's unique perspective. The ensuing picture is rich and multifaceted, uncovering unforeseen traits of Amery's thought, and surprising correlations that have so far been under-researched. It invites further studies of the Holocaust and its consequences to take their cue from non-neutral first person reflections. Front Matter ....Pages i-xix Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 Jean Améry and Primo Levi: The Differences in Likeness (Berel Lang)....Pages 3-14 On Historical Objectivity, the Reality of Evil and Moral Kitsch: Jean Améry as a Witness (Amit Kravitz)....Pages 15-34 Jean Améry and the Generational Limits of Resentment as Morality (C. Fred Alford)....Pages 35-54 Registers of Undesirability, Poetics of Detention: Jean Améry on the Jewish Exile and Behrouz Boochani on the Manus Prison (Magdalena Zolkos)....Pages 55-84 The Ethics of Resentment: The Tactlessness of Jean Améry (David Heyd)....Pages 85-102 Front Matter ....Pages 103-103 Torture and Torturers (Eran Fish)....Pages 105-118 Torture: Reading Améry, Rereading Jewish Law (Amos Israel-Vleeschhouwer)....Pages 119-140 Total Destruction: The Case of Jean Améry (Yochai Ataria)....Pages 141-157 Language in Exile, Exile in Language (Dana Amir)....Pages 159-169 The Healing Power of Imagination: Playfulness in Impossible Situations (Mooli Lahad)....Pages 171-197 Front Matter ....Pages 199-199 Without Love or Wisdom: On Jean Améry’s Reluctant Philosophy (Roy Ben-Shai)....Pages 201-220 Jean Améry on the Value of Death and Dying (Eli Pitcovski)....Pages 221-236 Jean Améry: Suicide, the Refusal to Heal, and Humanistic Freedom (Grace Campbell)....Pages 237-259 Between the Logic of Life and the Anti-logic of Death: Reflections on Suicidality in the Wake of Jean Améry (Yael Lavi)....Pages 261-284 “The Nonsense that You Cannot Write Poetry After Auschwitz”: Jean Améry, the Interrupted Writer (Oshrat C. Silberbusch)....Pages 285-312 Realism Contested: Jean Améry’s Charles Bovary, Country Doctor (Adrian Switzer)....Pages 313-339 Back Matter ....Pages 341-345