The Philosopher of Auschwitz

Informationen zum Autor Irène Heidelberger-Leonard Klappentext Who was Jean Amery? Victim or survivor? Agnostic or Jew? Austrian or exile? Philosopher or journalist? Jean Amery is not easy to classify but what this biography (the first in any language) demonstrates is that he is more - far more - than some enigmatic cult figure: he is one of the most influential of Holocaust survivors and one of the most provocative writers and thinkers of the 20th century. Jean Amery - born Hans Maier in Austria in 1912 - is perhaps best known for his seminal work, "At the Mind's Limits", one of the central texts on what Amery himself described as 'the subjective state of the victim.' But as Irene Heidelberger-Leonard's book reveals, Amery was not just a 'professional concentration camper', as he sometimes dubbed himself in a mixture of mockery and resignation. Drawing on a wide range of previously unpublished documents, Heidelberger-Leonard illuminates the turbulent life of this complex figure, from his middle class origins in pre-war Austria; his flight from his homeland to join the Resistance; his imprisonment in Auschwitz and Belsen; to his eventual suicide in 1978. This definitive biography examines how Amery grappled with what it meant to be both a victim and survivor of the concentration camps and what his experiences there reveal about the tension between human dignity and the reality of horror. Focusing chiefly on Amery's literary works, one of the book's great strengths lies in exploring how every aspect of Amery's life and thought is inextricably connected with his writings. This biography brilliantly demonstrates the importance of Amery in his own time and shows how his relevance extends far beyond. Zusammenfassung Who was Jean Amery? Victim or survivor? Agnostic or Jew? Austrian or exile? Philosopher or journalist? This biography demonstrates that he is more - far more - than some enigmatic cult figure: he is one of the most influential of Holocaust survivors and one of the most provocative writers and thinkers of the 20th century. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1. VILLAGE IDYLL (1912-1924) - Bad Ischl and the Magic of the Forest Hohenems: certificate of citizenship and ostensible homeland . The family . Early years in Vienna . Hans and Ernst Mayer: friends in life and death . Bad Ischl . Who or what is a Jew? . A divided heart . Winter world versus summer world . The tribulations of the young grammar-school boy 2. ZIRKUSGASSE 48 (1924-1935) - The Enticements of Reason Leopold Langhammer, Mayer's mentor . Red Vienna . First encounters: Broch, Canetti, and the Austrian literary scene . Hans Mayer's personal revolution . Approaches to the Wiener Kreis [Vienna Circle] . The future writer . Die Brücke 3. HANS MAYER AS A WRITER OF FICTION - Die Schiffbrüchigen [The Shipwrecked], 1935/45 1935 Préludes . The first novel . Autobiography as historical writing . Althager - an alter ego? . The relationship to 'the other' . Genophobia . 'Art should not describe life, but create life' . 1945: To be or not to be . Auschwitz - a mass fate? . The Auschwitz discourse then and now 4. YEARS OF WANDERING (1938-1945) - The Mind Knows no Limits Vienna before and after the Anschluss . Antwerp (1939-1940) . St. Cyprien - Gurs (1940-1941) . Flight to occupied Belgium . Resistance in Brussels . Breendonck (1943) . Torture in his novel (1945) . Torture in the essay (12965) . Auschwitz - Dora-Mittelbau - Bergen Belsen (1944-1945) . Jean Améry / Primo Levi - an excursus . Friends strange to each other . Coming home to no home 5. LIVING ON - BUT HOW AND WHERE? (1945-1955) - The principle of education The original theme of suicide: Love's Crown of Thorns: variation 1 . Heinrich Greyt: variation 2 . Die Selbstmörder: variation 3 . Kleist: variation 4 . Die Eingemauerten [The Immured]: variation 5 . Existentialism in France. Revolution of the mind? Fashion? Or the twilight of ...

Product details

• Authors: Ir Ne Heidelberger-Leonard, Irene Heidelberger-Leonard
• Assisted by: Anthea Bell (Translation)
• Publisher: Tauris, I.B.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.07.2010
• EAN: 9781848851504
• ISBN: 978-1-84885-150-4
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 166 mm x 242 mm x 32 mm
• Subject: Non-fiction book