Modern history is haunted by the disasters of the century--world wars, concentration camps,
Hiroshima, and the Holocaust--grief, anger, terror, and loss beyond words, but still close, still
impending. How can we write or think about disaster when by its very nature it defies speech
and compels silence, burns books and shatters meaning? The Writing of the Disaster
reflects upon efforts to abide in disaster's infinite threat. First published in French in 1980, it
takes up the most serious tasks of writing: to describe, explain, and redeem when possible …

Modern history is haunted by the disasters of the century-world wars, concentration camps,
Hiroshima, and the Holocaust-grief, anger, terror, and loss beyond words, but still close, still
impending. How can we write or think about disaster when by its very nature it defies speech
and compels silence, burns books and shatters meaning? The Writing of the Disaster
reflects upon efforts to abide in disaster's infinite threat. First published in French in 1980, it
takes up the most serious tasks of writing: to describe, explain, and redeem when possible …