Interrupting Auschwitz: Art, Religion, Philosophy

Chapter 1: The Interrupted Absolute: Art, Religion and the 'New Categorical Imperative'
Chapter 2: 'The Ever-Broken Promise of Happiness': Interrupting Art, or Adorno
Chapter 3: 'Absolute Insomnia': Interrupting Religion, or Levinas
Chapter 4: 'To Preserve the Question': Interrupting the Book, or Jabès
Conclusion: Sharing the Imperative

"This is a singular book of enormous importance. Interrupting Auschwitz forges another way of thinking that is neither simple invention nor mere speculation. While there are many books that take the theme of Auschwitz, Cohen's work transcends any easy identification with holocaust studies. He knows the difficulties and therefore follows exacting and complex thought with great rigour, insisting that Auschwitz is a key problem for how we think."--Andrew Benjamin, Monash University
"Cohen underscores the necessity to remember history and write literature, or make art that can face-up to the terrible past and provide moral principles that could assure that Auschwitz will never happen again. Simultaneously the author is acutely aware of the impossibility of doing so. Rather than adopting Adorno's pessimism, Cohen reasons that the impossibility of this assurance places ethical thought in a state of continuous, endless incompleteness. Thus, closure is impossible, redemption is unattainable and our responsibility never ends. ... Rather than being understood in terms of a will to finality, the redemption is interpreted as an 'interruptive' thought, a refusal to bring thought to any point of completion. Very creatively, Cohen calls this ethical task 'interrupting' which signifies two distinct meanings, but both essential to our present-day thinking." -C. Oscar Jacob, Janus Head, 7.1, 2004