Escaping the Holocaust: French Author's "New" Humanism Examined in Lawrence University Lecture

APPLETON, WIS. -- What lessons can be learned from the Holocaust? Did it teach us anything about the human community?

Eilene Hoft-March, associate professor of French at Lawrence University, examines those questions through the writings of modern French philosopher Sarah Kofman in a Lawrence University Main Hall Forum.

Hoft-March presents, "Still Breathing: Sarah Kofman's Holocaust Memories," Tuesday, May 1 at 4:15 p.m. in Main Hall, Room 202. The event is free and open to the public.

Hoft-March will discuss Kofman's literary evolution from philosophical writing toward autobiographical works, focusing on her book, "Smothered Words," a reflective account of the death of Kofman's father at the Auschwitz concentration camp. She will examine Kofman's radical "new vision" of community imposed by the Holocaust and expalin how the lessons humans need to act upon as a result of the Holocaust are often very difficult to implement.

A specialist in 20th-century French literature, especially the evolution of the novel and the autobiography, Hoft-March joined the Lawrence faculty in 1988. She earned her Ph.D. in French at the University of California-Berkeley.