KALTĖ IR GĖDA IŠPAŽINTIES KULTŪROJE
GUILT AND SHAME IN A CULTURE OF CONFESSION
Author(s): Mykolas Jurgis DrungaSubject(s): Studies in violence and power, History of the Holocaust, History of Antisemitism
Published by: Vytauto Didžiojo Universitetas
Keywords: Tomas Venclova; Walter Kaufmann; decidophobia; four cardinal virtues; punishment; justice; autonomy; fear; conscience; sin; guilt; shame; confession; penance; forgiveness;
Summary/Abstract: It was in 1975 that Tomas Venclova, writing in Soviet-occupied Lithuania, first trenchantly raised the hitherto largely avoided topic of relations between Lithuanians and Jews with special emphasis on issues of personal and national Lithuanian responsibility, guilt, and shame for Holocaust-related crimes. His essay evoked responses in both the Lithuanian underground and the Western diaspora press. A bit earlier similar questions of guilt and shame in various contexts were raised by the German-born U. S. philosopher Walter Kaufmann. This paper presents some of Kaufmann‘s views; juxtaposes them with some of Venclova‘s; and puts the issue of responsibility, guilt, shame, and punishment for major crimes in a theistic Christian framework which Kaufmann abjures, Venclova echoes, and this author largely accepts.
Journal: Darbai ir dienos
- Issue Year: 2014
- Issue No: 62
- Page Range: 139-149
- Page Count: 11
- Language: Lithuanian