JWST 385
Ethics after the Shoah Spring 2013
Division II Writing Skills
Cross-listed REL 385
This is not the current course catalog

The Destruction of European Jewry during World War II has had an enduring impact on philosophical and literary work in Europe and elsewhere. Can any meaning be gleaned from it? How can it be represented? In so far as it changed our conception of what it is to be human, does it also change how we participate in the humanities? In this class we will consider these questions, by focusing on the surge of ethical inquiry that followed from the disaster. We will treat post-World War II works by authors who consider the impact of the Shoah on notions of the other, election, representation, forgiveness, and universalism, with particular attention given to the French context. Emmanuel Levinas will be a central figure along with Primo Levi, Emil Fackenheim, Hannah Arendt, Georgio Agamben, Maurice Blanchot and Jacques Derrida.