Květnový seminář k moderním židovským dějinám
Imre Kertész, the “Medium of Auschwitz”
To Imre Kertész, “Auschwitz” was the “Ecce homo” of two thousand years of European Christian culture. Such collapse of the so-called humanist culture led him to undertake a radical criticism of literature and of language. Analysing the totalitarian condition through his literary work, he strove to reconquer a free self through writing. Indeed, this existential practice enabled to become a creator, that is, to turn into the subject of his own creation. But how to create a work of art in such circumstances?
Lecture by Clara Royer (CEFRES, Prague) will try to cast some light on how Kertész strove to become “the Medium of Auschwitz” through a historical approach of the genesis of his literary work. It will appraise the historical and personal conditions of the birth of Kertész’s first published novel, Facelessness.
The colloquium is held in the library of CEFRES (Na Florenci 3, Prague 1) on May 9, 2017.