Poesis in Extremis

Reviews / Votes

A long overdue analysis and cogent discussion of Holocaust literature as literary testimony ... This is essential reading for anyone interested in 20th-century literature and history. * Choice * It is not only by focusing on poetry, but also by insisting on its evidentiary value, that Feldman and Sicher's volume becomes a timely and original contribution to a relatively neglected area of Holocaust research, the study of verse. Poesis in Extremis is thoroughly researched, erudite, and engaging, with each chapter providing helpful historical and biographical contextualization, and deftly interweaving these paratextual details with close literary analysis. -- Helena Duffy, University of Wroclaw * Modern Language Review * Well researched and insightful, this book closes a major gap in Holocaust studies by discussing the role of literature, and particularly that of poetry, as testimony in the spiritual lives of victims during as well as after the Holocaust. * Leona Toker, Professor of English, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel * This inspiring study gives a new slant on the vexed question of literary art of the Holocaust era. Through detailed readings of works by such writers as Elie Wiesel and Wladyslaw Szlengel, Ida Fink and Miklos Radnoti, Feldman and Sicher compellingly argue that poetic rather than documentary testimony was the most 'radical outlet' for witnesses' grief and horror. This important book reaffirms the crucial role of poetry after Auschwitz. * Sue Vice, Professor of English Literature, University of Sheffield, UK * The volume brings a welcome comparative perspective to literature written in the Holocaust ... [It] is an important volume that brings together close reading of Holocaust poetry with ongoing questions about poetics in extremis. * Journal of Modern Jewish Studies *