Kunst und Literatur nach Auschwitz (review)

146 SHOFAR Summer 1998 Vol. 16, No.4 intellectual life is also skewed, exhibiting some of the scholarly tendencies usually identified by the early contributors to the Wissenschaft des Judentums. Contrast, for example, the cursory attention given the Hasidut Ashkenaz with the handling of the writings of R. Judah b. Bezalel (Maharal) on aggadah, which are rather curiously described as "rationalistic" and "scientific." In this prologue, finally, the handling of both literary sources and questions of social history appear naive and somewhat unsophisticated, failing to draw on the critical refmement ofthe past few decades. Some of these problems are overcome in the chapters devoted to the early modern period, although the presentation of kabbalah at this historical juncture remains unwieldy and not wholly satisfying. Part Two of this volume is devoted to the Jewish Enlightenment and was written by Michael Graetz. This discussion of the Haskalah is unquestionably one of the best I have encountered. The questions raised here are excellent, and the answers are always insightful and sometimes even creative and original. The reader is thus presented with a stimulating synthesis that avoids unhelpful generalizations and offers a fair amount of detailed exposition. No doubt, a number ofscholars will object to Graetz's handling of the central figure ofthese chapters, Moses Mendelssohn. They will fmd his portrayal too conservative, and his handling of Mendelssohn's writings too willing to overlook internal tensions and inconsistencies. But Mendelssohn is one ofthose thinkers who will never be easily evaluated, and legitimate disagreements about how to interpret his varied oeuvre will be around for a long time. Beyond the broad interpretative issues, there are a number ofsmall problems here: the suggestions that Mendelssohn "gathered a circle around himself' and that the Maskilim served as "disciples" are overstated, as is the depiction of the "strong opposition" to Mendelssohn and the Haskalah. Still, whatever quibbles one might have on these or other issues, Graetz executes his task judiciously, and one may point to these chapters on the Jewish Enlightenment as the splendid fruits of such a collaborative synthetic history. With this fme concluding section ofa solid volume, both general readers and scholars have every reason to look forward to the remaining volumes of this series. Edward Breuer Department of Theology Loyola University Kunst und Literatur nach Auschwitz, edited by Manuel Koppen. Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 1993. 214 pp. This anthology about art and literature after Auschwitz records the proceedings of a four-day colloquium ofthe same title held at the Free University ofBerlin at the fiftieth Book Reviews 147 anniversary of the Wannsee Conference. Its editor characterizes the conference's and hence this anthology's purpose as an effort to help develop what in Gennany has scarcely yet taken place: an interdisciplinary confrontation with the problem of aesthetic Vergegenwiirtigung (visualization, realization) of the Holocaust. The structure of the anthology follows that of the colloquium. Section one, corresponding to day one of the colloquium, examines the timeliness, contemporary interpretations, and consequences to be drawn from Theodor Adorno's judgments of composing lyric poetry after Auschwitz as barbaric and all post-Holocaust culture as Milll (trash). The closing discussion-each day's sessions culminated in an open discussion summarized by the editor-neither sought nor achieved consensus on these topics. Obviously, Adorno's strictures never muzzled poetic voices on the subject ofthe Holocaust. Moreover, not only poets but artists also wrestle with the "how" as they confront the Holocaust in their artistic medium. Consequently, the contents of this volume gathers a wide range of contemporary responses to Adorno's refonnulation of Kant's categorical imperative, "act only according to maxims you could wish to become universal law," into '''I think of Auschwitz' must be able to accompany all my Vorstellungen (considerations, notions)." Klaus Laennann argues that Adorno injured all victims of the Holocaust, particularly the millions who have no burial place except in poetry, but concedes that Adorno's recognition of this injustice caused the softening of his position seventeen years later: '''Continuous suffering has as much a right of expression as the victim of torture has the right to scream. For this reason it might have been wrong to consider writing poetry after Auschwitz an impossibility.", Accordingly...