The Holocaust as Fiction: Derrida’s \u3cem\u3eDemeuere\u3c/em\u3e and the Demjanjuk Trial in Philip Roth’s \u3cem\u3eOperation Shylock\u3c/em\u3e

Abstract

This essay investigates the representation of juridical testimony in Roth’s “confession,” Operation Shylock. Read through the theoretical lens of Jacques Derrida, specifically in terms of his Demeure, Roth’s novel suggests a new strategy for coping with the Holocaust in literature, wherein writing remains true both to the Holocaust as unspeakable and to the Holocaust as actual historical event