The Memorial Ethics of Libeskind's Berlin Jewish Museum (The Holocaust and its Contexts)

This book is a detailed critical study of LibeskindÆs Berlin Jewish Museum in its historical, architectural and philosophical context. Emphasizing how the Holocaust changed our perception of history, memory, witnessing and representation, it develops the notion of æmemorial ethicsÆ to explore the MuseumÆs difference from more conventional post-World War Two commemorative sites. The main focus is on the Museum as an experience of the materiality of trauma which engages the visitor in a performative duty to remember. Arleen Ionescu builds on LevinasÆs idea of æethics as opticsÆ to show how LibeskindÆs Museum becomes a testimony to the unpresentable Other. Ionescu also extends the MuseumÆs experiential dimension by proposing her own subjective walk through LibeskindÆs space reimagined as a æliterary museumÆ. Featuring reflections on texts by Beckett, Celan, Derrida, Kafka, Blanchot, Wiesel and Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger (CelanÆs cousin), this virtual tour concludes with a brief account of LibeskindÆs analogous æhealing projectÆ for Ground Zero.

• | Author: Arleen Ionescu
• | Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• | Publication Date: Feb 28, 2017
• | Number of Pages: 318 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover/History
• | ISBN-10: 1137538309
• | ISBN-13: 9781137538307