We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
from Special Section on George Tabori: Edited and Introduced by Martin Kagel
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2018
One of the dominant motifs in literature dealing with the Shoah is that of the Jewish sacrifice/victim. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the Aqedah (the binding of Isaac) and the Passion of Christ are the most important narratives of sacrifice. Both deal with the factum brutum of violence, place the experience of violence within a comprehensive horizon of meaning, and form the point of departure and frame of reference for George Tabori's The Goldberg Variations. Tabori's metaphysical comedy is a self-reflective play that unites remembrance of the Shoah with artistic contemplation of the opportunities and limits of theater and performance. This chapter discusses one prominent example of Tabori's theater that does not turn away from the terror of history, but rather experiments with aesthetic forms and dramaturgical practices in the depiction of the Shoah while at the same time maintaining the possibility of redemption.
Violence and Sacrifice
IN THE COURSE OF the last decades, the longstanding literary debate on the “representation and memorialization of the Shoah” has been replaced by reflection on “the ways of representation and its prerequisites and consequences.” Yet the question, posed by Heiner Müller in May 1987, “[h]ow can we welcome beauty when the retina wears the traces of fingernail scratches on the walls of gas chambers: bodies of men, women, and children stacked on top of each other?” has not lost any of its relevance today, as it is this question that forces art to be self-reflective after Auschwitz.
An understanding of the structuring and stabilizing role of media in the creation of collective memory lies at the heart of this ongoing selfreflection. This is the understanding that, as James Edward Young has written, “what is remembered of the Holocaust depends on how it is remembered, and [that] how events are remembered depends in turn on the texts now giving them form.” Every single “present” creates its own past in the form of a construction of remembrance and memory, in which the medium of representation (historiography, literature, film, memorials, and remembrance days) with its specific narratives assumes the role of co-author.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
