Confronting Holocaust Nihilism and Despair: A Kierkegaardian Venture of Understanding Elie Wiesel’s Memoir Writing

Abstract

<p>此論文希冀透過齊克果宗教人學的視野，為閱讀埃利 · 維瑟爾集中營回憶錄書寫充斥死亡印記的敘事，開闢一條詮釋及反思蹊徑，以期對抗彌漫於無人性、自我、意義、及上帝之死境和永夜的虛無主義。並深入探討維瑟爾大屠殺書寫所蘊含對抗生存絕望的宗教性「反叛」精神，最終論證，對比齊式通過信仰超越致死絕望、成為「自我」的宗教觀，維瑟爾訴諸叛逆精神脫離絕望的信念，係為其忠於「亡者使者」甚於「上帝使者」的作者身份之重要註腳。</p> <p> </p><p>This paper aims to undertake a Kierkegaardian investigation into Elie Wiesel’s writing of his memorable but nihilistic Holocaust memoir, Night. Documenting the meaningless death of Auschwitz and the despair of its horror, such memoir writing is tremendously elusive and difficult to read, even impossible for "interpretation." To tackle this hermeneutical challenge, this study attempts to employ a counter-nihilistic approach to Wiesel’s writing of Holocaust nihilism and the post-Holocaust "imprint of death" via appropriating Kierkegaard’s existential-religious ideas about despair, religious anxiety, and constituting the self. With the intent to venture deep into the "dead-land" existence situated in the de-humanized universe of no meaning, no hope and no God, this Kierkegaardian examination of Wiesel’s memoir writing attempts to explore whether the writing of the horrible memory can be seen as invested with anxiety of meaning and living, and the voiced anger as the expression of rebellion against (post-)Holocaust despair. Ultimately, through ascertaining the rebellious spirit embedded within Wiesel’s writing vis-à-vis Kierkegaard’s thinking of faith in God, rather than mere defiance against death, as crucial for tackling nihilistic despair, the study concludes with understanding Wiesel’s memoir writing as an enterprise more of "the messenger of the dead" than of "the messenger of God."</p> <p> </p>