About the Author

Gary Weissman is Associate Professor of English at the University of Cincinnati and the author of The Writer in the Well: On Misreading and Rewriting Literature.

Reviews

"Seeking to understand why some people attempt to 'experience' the Holocaust viscerally, Weissman argues that we must first understand how we remember it... Weissman argues that recently the trend is to move away from literary or artistic representations and attempt to re-create the experience itself, as visitors to the U.S. Holocaust Museum can attest."-Library Journal, August 2004 "Fantasies of Witnessing is a remarkable book that examines how we understand, experience and become aware of the Holocaust. Fantasies of Witnessing is an absolutely fascinating book. Weissman's well-researched ideas and premises are set forth in a straightforward manner, making this a compelling read for anyone with an interest in the Holocaust, memory or philosophy."-Jewish Book World, Winter 2004 "This is an original and timely book that takes up important questions in Holocaust studies. Fantasies of Witnessing puts forward an argument that is almost counterintuitive and is thus quite surprising; and it does so by exploring a terrain (intellectual response to the Holocaust) that has received less discussion than might be expected. Written with a clarity and lack of pretension that are rare in works of literary and cultural criticism, Weissman's book will make a significant impact."-Michael Rothberg, coeditor of The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings "Others have raised questions about certain aspects of the way we are interested in the Holocaust, but Gary Weissman is the first to put the issue of our own desire to ' know' the Holocaust experience under the microscope."-Irene Kacandes, Dartmouth College, coeditor of A User's Guide to German Cultural Studies