James Hatley

Suffering Witness: the Quandry of Responsibility After the Irreparable (Suny Series in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art) James Hatley

Conceptualizes the question of witness and responsibility, following the Holocaust, using continental philosophy, theology, and literary theory.

Drawing on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, James Hatley uses the prose of Primo Levi and Tadeusz Borowski, as well as the poetry of Paul Celan, to question why witnessing the Shoah is so pressing a responsibility for anyone living in its aftermath. He argues that the witnessing of irreparable loss leaves one in an irresoluble quandary but that the attentiveness of that witness resists the destructive legacy of annihilation.