The Ethics of Discomfort: Critical Perpetrator Studies and/as Education after Auschwitz

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Abstract

This chapter begins with Adorno’s call for a critical engagement with perpetrators in his essay “Education after Auschwitz.” Adorno conceives of education as promoting autonomy and critical self-reflection. I relate this to Foucault’s conception of “desubjectivation” and an ethics of discomfort, which I develop as a core principle of teaching about perpetrators and a critical Perpetrator Studies more generally. I argue that literature and art have a crucial role to play as they can both model and elicit a productive sense of discomfort. I draw on two examples to illustrate this claim: a work of literary non-fiction, Helga Schubert’s Die Welt da drinnen (2003); and Milo Rau’s Breivik’s Statement (2012), a performance piece. I discuss these works in terms of the concepts of empathic unsettlement and affirmative critique, respectively, and show how they are each committed to a critical perpetrator pedagogy that is informed by an ethics of discomfort.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Routledge International Handbook of Perpetrator Studies
EditorsSusanne C. Knittel, Zachary J. Goldberg
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter34
Pages379-384
Number of pages6
Edition1
ISBN (Electronic)9781315102887
ISBN (Print)9781138103245
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Publication series

NameRoutledge International Handbooks
PublisherRoutledge

Keywords

  • perpetrators
  • education
  • Auschwitz
  • ethics
  • discomfort
  • Adorno
  • Foucault
  • pedagogy
  • Holocaust
  • enlightenment

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