Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis and History

Compared to most reflections on trauma and the holocaust (especially academic pig-headedness) this one stands out for its furious energy (often synonymous with intelligence), its naivete but also its paranoid intellectual evasiveness: in the end it doesn't know what it wants to say, which may have to do with its often tenuous, or non existent personal relation to its topic. If you like style over substance this is a definite must: Its rage still beats most academic useless blabla.

Testimony a brilliant and profound book. Analysing stories from the Holocaust, Felman and Laub argue the importance for society of witnessing those who have lived beyond the boundaries of existing cultural systems, and therefore their own capacity for witnessing themselves. A compelling and understated book for anyone interested in the boundaries of our own history and epistemology, and the hazards of venturing beyond them