Identity and the Limits of Comparison

Theory, Culture and Society 15 (1):57-72 (1998)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The reception of Zygmunt Bauman in Germany can be understood against the background of the two great public debates that have dominated post-war West German cultural, political and intellectual life, that over the Sonderweg thesis, and the Historikerstreit. This reception is analysed. It was in terms of the questions those debates had raised and the positions taken by the participants in them that Bauman's writings on modernity and postmodernity, and the Holocaust in particular, were received. A universal theme was involved. The legitimate use of historical understanding was at stake, with identity and comparison being central issues for a set of positions, a field of forces in which Bauman is the `odd one out'. Bauman is an outsider to the debates. He is someone with stimulating ideas which sometimes appear paradoxical, and which drove wedges between established ideological alignments. To the Germans, he seems, understandably, an interesting and puzzling figure.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 94,045

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Analytics

Added to PP
2014-02-02

Downloads
15 (#948,985)

6 months
1 (#1,723,047)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?