Surviving Lamentations

by Tod Linafelt

"In Surviving Lamentations, Tod Linafelt offers an alternative reading of Lamentations in light of the "literature of survival" (especially the work of Jean Amery, Terrence Des Pres, and Lawrence Langer) as well as literary and philosophical reflections on "the survival of literature" (especially as articulated by Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-Francois Lyotard)." "Seen through Linafelt's eyes, Lamentations emerges as an ancient example of the literature of survival that, contrary to the current consensus of biblical scholars, is more about the expression of suffering than the meaning behind it, more about the vicissitudes of survival than the abstractions of sin and guilt, and more about protest as a religious posture than capitulation or confession. In the end, Lamentations seems uncannily relevant to contemporary discourse on survival - albeit a survival that is random and infinitely precarious."--Jacket.