When the prisoner in Plato's cave is released and turns around, the light of the fire is painful and terrifying. Running back to their seat, it makes no sense at all and they have no language to even speak about it. When we experience something that does not fit in the framework within which we make sense of our reality, can we even call it "experience"?
Ernst van Alphen calls trauma "failed experience". In this episode, we discuss the Holocaust in relation to trauma, experience, memory, archives and affect. We focus particularly on his essay Testimonies and the Limits of Representation, a chapter in his book Caught By History: Holocaust Effects In Contemporary Art, Literature, and Theory (Stanford U.P 1997). Ernst was so kind to make an older version of this chapter (Symptoms of Discursivity) available here.
About Ernst van Alphen:
Ernst van Alphen is professor of Literary Studies at Universiteit Leiden. His publications include Shame! And Masculinity (ed., Valiz 2020), Failed Images:Photography and Its Counter-Practices (Valiz 2018), Staging the Archive: Art and Photography in the Age of New Media (Reaktion Books 2014), Art in Mind: How Contemporary Images Shape Thought (University of Chicago Press 2005), Armando: Shaping Memory (NAi Publishers 2000), Francis Bacon and The Loss of Self (Harvard U.P 1995).
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Hoe Plato je uit je grot sleurt boektrailer (Dutch)
Episode 44 - World-Changing Organisms with Stephen Porder
Episode 43 - Intergenerational Trauma with Inez Schelfhout
Episode 42 - The Soul's Task on Earth with Dorita Sleur
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Episode 40 - The Climate Health Crisis with Margarita Vossen
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Episode 38B - Money Creation with Anne Kervers (Part 2)
Episode 38A - How to Block a Freeway with Anne Kervers (Part 1)
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Episode 33 - Environmental Philosophy with Yogi Hendlin
Episode 32 - Climate Science Rebellion with Ernst-Jan Kuiper
Episode 31 - How to Talk to a Science Denier with Lee McIntyre
Episode 30 - Henri Bergson’s Philosophy with Jeanne Proust
Episode 29 - Philosophy of Science with Rani Lill Anjum
Episode 28 - Medical Education with Lara Varpio
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