Abstract
Albert Camus's The Plague establishes a mode of“literature as historical testimony”and demonstrates a profound shift in the relationship between history and narrative, and it implies that literature ( narrative) is inevitably embedded in history. Literature as a testimony to the Holocaust does not record the Holocaust but also offers a new perspective to understand it. This actualizes the transformation of history as it changes the nature of historical knowledge. The history in The Plague is written in the mode of an allegory, and it establishes a profound metaphorical relation between the plague and the Holocaust. As both the plague and the Holocaust are beyond the original cognitive framework of history, The Plague, as literary testimony, witnesses the history of the Holocaust where prior historical concepts and the mode of historical writing failed.
Keywords
history, narrative, the Holocaust, total condemnation, literature as testimony
First Page
43
Last Page
53
Recommended Citation
Tao, Dongfeng. 2021. "Testimony, Narrative, and History: The Plague and Some Issues of Literature as Testimony." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 41, (2): pp.43-53. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol41/iss2/5
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