Metaphorizing the Holocaust: The Ethics of Comparison

• Authors: Mark Webber
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Metaphorizing the Holocaust: The Ethics of Comparison    This paper focuses on the ethics of metaphor and other forms of comparison that invoke National Socialism and the Holocaust. It seeks to answer the question: Are there criteria on the basis of which we can judge whether metaphors and associated tropes “use” the Holocaust appropriately? In analyzing the thrust and workings of such comparisons, the paper also seeks to identify and clarify the terminology and concepts that allow productive discussion. In line with its conception of metaphor that is also rhetorical praxis, the paper focuses on specific controversies involving the metaphorization of the Holocaust, primarily in Germany and Austria. The paper develops its argument through the following process. First, it examines the rhetorical/political contexts in which claims of the Holocaust’s comparability (or incomparability) have been raised. Second, it presents a review (and view) of the nature of metaphor, metonymy, and synecdoche. It applies this framework to (a) comparisons of Saddam Hussein with Hitler in Germany in 1991; (b) the controversies surrounding the 2004 poster exhibition “The Holocaust on Your Plate” in Germany and Austria, with particular emphasis on the arguments and decisions in cases before the courts in those countries; and (c) the invocation of “Auschwitz” as metonym and synecdoche. These examples provide the basis for a discussion of the ethics of comparison. In its third and final section the paper argues that metaphor is by nature duplicitous, but that ethical practice involving Holocaust comparisons is possible if one is self-aware and sensitive to the necessity of seeing the “other” as oneself. The ethical framework proposed by the paper provides the basis for evaluationg the specific cases adduced.

Keywords

EN

Holocaust; Jewish (1939–1945); Shoah; Genocide; Metaphor; Rhetoric; Metonymy; Synechdoche; Comparison; Comparability; Unique; Singular; Ethics; Ethical; Empathy; Antisemitism; Anty-semitism; Bundesverfassungsgericht; Oberster Gerichtshof; PETA; Auschwitz; Animals; Images; Photographic

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Images. The International Journal of European Film, Performing Arts and Audiovisual Communication
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 15-16
• Pages: 1-30

Dates

published

2011-01-01

Contributors

author

Mark Webber

• Departament Studiów Niemieckich i Nauk Humanistycznych, Uniwersytet w Toronto

References

• Marcus B. Hester, The Meaning of Poetic Metaphor: An Analysis in the Light of Wittgen¬stein's Claim that Meaning Is Use, De Proprietatibus Litterarum. Series Maior 1 (The Hague: Mouton, 1967).
• According to The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
• Adorno, T.W. “Kulturkritik und Gesellschaft.” Lyrik nach Auschwitz? Adorno und die Dichter. Ed. Petra Kiedaisch. Universal-Bibliothek, 9363. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1995. 27-29.
• Agee, J. “A Mother’s Tale.” The Collected Short Prose of James Agee. Ed. Robert Fitzgerald. Boston: Houghton Miffiin, 1968. 221-243.
• Alexander, J.C. “The Social Construction of Moral Universals.”
• Remembering the Holocaust. Oxford / New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. 3-102. Augstein, R. “Kommentar: Kein Hitler.” Der Spiegel 10/1991. 4 March 1991: 160. Bauer, Y. Rethinking the Holocaust. New Haven / London: Yale University Press, 2001.
• Berggren, D. “The Use and Abuse of Metaphor, I.” The Review of Metaphysics: A Philosophical Quarterly 16.2 (1962): 237-258.
• “The Use and Abuse of Metaphor, II.” The Review of Metaphysics: A Philosophical Journal 16.3 (1963): 450-472.
• Black, M. “Metaphor.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. New Series, 55 (1954-1955): 273-294.B’nai Brith Canada. “The Unholy Alliance.” National Post. 9 November 2010: 18. Bundesverfassungsgericht. “Entscheidungen: BVerfG, 1 BvR 2266/04 vom 20.2.2009, Absatz-Nr. (1 – 29).” 20 February 2009. 25 November 2010.
• http://www.bverfg.de/entscheidungen/rk20090220_1bvr226604.html
• Cohen, T. Thinking of Others: On the Talent for Metaphor. Princeton Monographs in Philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008.
• Denham, A.E. Metaphor and Moral Experience. Oxford Philosophical Monographs. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000.
• Deutscher Bundestag. “10. Wahlperiode – 16. Sitzung.” Bonn, Thursday, 23 June 1983. 1043-1055.
• Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland. September 2010. 23 December 2010 <https://www.btg-bestellservice.de/pdf/10060000.pdf>.
• Dubiel, H. Niemand ist frei von der Geschichte. Die nationalsozialistische Herrschaft in den Debatten des Deutschen Bundestages. München: Hanser, 1999.
• “Egal wie. Pazifismus habe ‘Auschwitz erst möglich gemacht’ – Grobgeratenes von Heiner Geißler. Keiner kann so hart holzen wie der CDU-Minister.” Der Spiegel 25/83. 20 June 1983: 26-27.

Identifiers

DOI

10.14746/i.2011.15.16.01