When the Tiger Leaps Into the Past

Holocaust, History, and Messianic Materialism in Giorgio Agamben, Walter Benjamin, and László Nemes’son of Saul

Bibliographic Data

ID3774663
AuthorsBoštjan Nedoh (0000-0001-5907-5996, Slovenia)
Year2019
Volume24
Issue5
Pages44-60
Publication date2019-09-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAngelaki (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0969-725X • E-ISSN: 1469-2899
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0969725x.2019.1655270
OpenAlexW2973021764
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited14

This article examines Giorgio Agamben's rejection of the religious term Holocaust as a name for the extermination of the Jewish people. Agamben rejects this term (and eventually prefers the term Shoah) in so far as it implies a sacrificial exchange with the divine. He argues that the Jews were not killed as sacrificial victims but as (biopolitical) homines sacri. Yet, in so doing, Agamben also denies the redemptive potential of the term Holocaust, preventing the victims finding a place in public memory. In fact, he overlooks the fact that the "Final Solution" also involved a plan to erase all traces of the extermination itself. This article seeks to challenge Agamben's view with the help of László Nemes' film Son of Saul. It argues that Nemes' film is a unique example of a film about the Holocaust that avoids regression into positions that Agamben criticizes. As such, the film can be regarded as an example of Benjaminian messianic redemption

Judaism · LEAPS · Physics · Psychoanalysis · Term (time · The Holocaust · Theology · Global Security and Public Health · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Psychology · History · Philosophy

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