Historians disagree over whether the Holocaust can withstand experimental narrative forms
Evidence
Saul Friedlander asserts that “there are limits to representation which should not be but can easily be transgressed (1992:3; emphasis in original). Berel Lang (1990:151) argues that only literal representationalist narratives can bear the test of “authenticity and truthfulness.” Hayden White, who pioneered our understanding of how realist historical narratives are produced (White, 1978), counters that such realism springs from the same modernist order as the Holocaust itself; more critical, reflexive, and experimental techniques are thus needed to reveal this relationship (White, 1992). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 260
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: Introduces the representationalist vs. reflexive split in Holocaust historiography - a useful conceptual framework for how scholars argue about limits to representing atrocity.
- XREF: Hayden White’s critique of realist narrative connects to the reader’s interest in how form shapes historical knowledge, echoing debates in ‘Communication as Culture’ about representation and mediation.