Main description:

This volume explores themes originating from the work of Jean Amery (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 Amery'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.

Contents:

Part I Limits: Bound to the Past.- 1. Jean Amery and Primo Levi: The Differences in Likeness.- 2. On Historical Objectivity, the Reality of Evil and Moral Kitsch: Jean Amery as a Witness.- 3. Jean Amery and the Generational Limits of Resentment as Morality.- 4. Registers of Undesirability, Poetics of Detention: Jean Amery on the Jewish Exile and Behrouz Boochani on the Manus Prison.- 5. The Ethics of Resentment: The Tactlessness of Jean Amery.- Part II The Mind: Torture and Consequences.- 6. "They Tortured Because They Were Torturers".- 7. Torture: Reading Amery, Rereading Jewish Law.- 8. Total destruction: The case of Jean Amery.- 9. Language in Exile, Exile in Language: Reflections on Jean Amery's Essay "How Much Home Does a Person Need?".- 10. The Healing Power of Imagination: Playfulness in Impossible Situations.- Part III Beyond: Philosophy and Literature.- 11. "In an Uncertain Twilight:" On Jean Amery's Reluctant Philosophy.- 12. Jean Amery on the Value of Death and Dying.- 13. Jean Amery: Suicide, The Refusal to Heal, and Humanistic Freedom.- 14. Yael Lavi Between the Logic of Life and the Anti-Logic of Death.- 15. "The nonsense that you cannot write poetry after Auschwitz..." Jean Amery the Dichter.- 16. Realism Contested: Jean Amery's Charles Bovary, Country Doctor.