On “Modernity and the Holocaust” – inspirations and critique after three decades

Abstract

The article discusses the main theses of Zygmunt Bauman’s book Modernity and the Holocaust, the contexts of its writing and its early critical reception in the 1990s. As an introduction to the issue’s theme, it focuses on the proposals for a contemporary interpretation of Bauman’s work put forward by the authors of the articles published in this issue of Studia Litteraria et Historica. In the final section, the author proposes a reading of Modernity and the Holocaust in relation to educational issues raised in the 1960s by Theodor W. Adorno.