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War of Images or Images of War? Visualizing History in Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones

Roth, Zoe

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Abstract

The Kindly Ones (2006), a French novel written by the American author Jonathan Littell, explores the Holocaust from a perpetrator's point of view. The novel is replete with detailed historical analysis and intertextual references, but its narrative is also highly visual. From the perpetrator's gaze to the archive of perpetrator images that circulate in the text, the novel's visual objects are sites where violence is waged and imagined. Rather than depicting only the Holocaust and WWII, however, The Kindly Ones creates an alternative archive of images that brings this past into contact with Algeria, Vietnam, and 9/11. The novel not only offers images of war, it represents a “war of images” that evinces post-9/11 anxieties about the power of images to produce, and not simply represent, violence. By visualizing previously imperceptible relations, this quintessential historical novel offers a model for historicizing the present, not the past.

Citation

Roth, Z. (2017). War of Images or Images of War? Visualizing History in Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones. Journal of modern literature, 41(1), 81-99. https://doi.org/10.2979/jmodelite.41.1.06

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 2, 2016
Online Publication Date Dec 23, 2017
Publication Date Dec 1, 2017
Deposit Date Nov 2, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of Modern Literature
Print ISSN 0022-281X
Electronic ISSN 1529-1464
Publisher Temple University
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 41
Issue 1
Pages 81-99
DOI https://doi.org/10.2979/jmodelite.41.1.06
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1401884

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Copyright Statement
Working paper This article was published as Roth, Zoe (2017). War of Images or Images of War? Visualizing History in Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones. Journal of Modern Literature 41(1): 81-99. No part of this article may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or distributed, in any form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photographic, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Indiana University Press. For educational re-use, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center (508-744-3350). For all other permissions, please visit Indiana University Press.





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