On the Defensive considers how our ethical responses to the Nazi camps have unintentionally repressed and denied the experiences of their victims. Through detailed readings of survivor narratives, particularly the works of political deportees Jorge Semprun and Charlotte Delbo, Sharon Marquart examines how well-intentioned people – including victims, their family members, and readers of witness literature – respond to such testimony in ways that are understood as ethical by their communities but serve instead to ignore victims’ experiences.

As Marquart shows, collective disasters such as the Holocaust expose the limitations of our ethical theories. To cope with this instability we withdraw and defend ourselves through inattentive and formulaic responses that turn a blind eye to the plight of victims. Challenging contemporary theorizations of community, ethics, testimony, and trauma, On the Defensive is a far-reaching reflection on the ways in which communal understandings of our duties and responsibilities to others can facilitate the denial of an atrocity’s horrors.

Sharon Marquart is an assistant professor of French in the Department of Languages and Literatures at Wilfrid Laurier University.

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‘In this admirable book, Marquart writes at the intersections of Holocaust studies, gender studies, and philosophy…The book is thoroughly researched and constitutes an original contribution to understanding Holocaust literature. Highly recommended.’

Choice Magazine vol 53:04:2015

‘This is an important book that insightfully questions the ways readers can engage with Holocaust and trauma writing and will be of interest beyond French studies.’

French Studies vol 71:01:2017