Abstract:
In the preface of a groundbreaking book on the question of the limits of representation of the Holocaust, Saul Friedländer claims that a limit event can be identified as an event that tests some traditional categories of Historical Knowledge. Therefore, one needs to identify in a more systematic way which traditional categories those could be. Then, I’ve picked some passages from major authors in the field of Historical Theory, such as Jörn Rüsen, Saul Friedländer himself and Dominick LaCapra, in which the concept of limit event is mentioned, in order to suggest a diagnosis: (a) according to those authors, temporality, narrative and imagination could be some of those categories; (b) all of these three categories can be drawn from the centrality of the concept of trauma. But I claim that, without neglecting its importance, the concept of trauma has also its limits, so one might try to think of alternatives, such as anguish.
Keywords:
Diagnosis; Limit event; Temporality; Narrative; Imagination; Anguish