Smothered Words

Book excerpt: In Smothered Words, the philosopher Sarah Kofman acknowledges her personal history, evoking for the first time in a published work her father's deportation and death in Auschwitz. Kofman juxtaposes readings of the work of Maurice Blanchot, reflections on The Human Race, Robert Antelme's account of his deportation to a German prison (also available from Northwestern University Press), and her recognition of having outlived her father and survived the Holocaust. Her consideration of these three figures and the texts associated with them serves as a meditation on the contrasting imperatives of history, autobiography, and critical writing. Kofman committed suicide in 1995. Smothered Words addresses both the effects on representation of the emotional suffering of the survivors and the ethical questions raised in representing the Holocaust. Kofman explores the relationships and tensions among autobiographical, historical, and philosophical approaches to writing the Holocaust.