Name: facing the extreme
SKU: 9096645
Price: 436.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Tzvetan Todorov

Type

Physical Book

Author

Tzvetan Todorov

Translated by

Abigail Pollak

Arthur Denner

Publisher

St. Martins Press-3PL

Language

English

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9x15.2x2.3 cm

Weight

0.45 kg.

ISBN

0805042644

ISBN13

9780805042641

Synopsis "facing the extreme"

The Nazi concentration camps and the Soviet gulag provide the context for this acclaimed examination of the human capacity for moral life. Drawing on a striking array of documents, Tzvetan Todorov reconstructs a vivid portrait of the conduct of those who ran the camps and those who suffered their outrages. Challenging the widespread view that moral life was extinguished in the extreme circumstances of the camps, he uncovers instead a rich moral universe, composed not of grand acts of heroism but of ordinary gestures of dignity and care, compassion and solidarity. A complex and profound study, Facing the Extreme restores a lost dimension to this anguished history, even as it offers an eloquent plea for the recognition of everyday virtues as a basis for contemporary morality.

Tzvetan Todorov

(Author)

View Author's Page

Tzvetan Todorov (Sofia, 1939 – Paris, 2017) was a Bulgarian-born French linguist, philosopher, historian of ideas, and literary theorist. Professor at the CNRS in Paris and visiting scholar at Yale, Harvard, and Columbia, he began his work in literary theory with Theory of Literature of the Russian Formalists (1965) and Literature and Signification (1967), pioneering texts in semiotics and narratology. From the 80s, he shifted towards historical and ethical essays, reflecting on the Enlightenment and totalitarianisms.

Among his most influential titles are The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other (1982), Facing the Limit (1991; Facing the Extreme), and The Abuses of Memory (1995). His exploration of evil and memory in the 20th century is summarized in Memory of Evil, Temptation of Good (2000) and The Totalitarian Experience (2010). These works, of an essayistic and historiographic genre, did not receive specific literary awards, but Todorov was honored with the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences in 2008 and received distinctions such as the Medal of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.

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