The Dogs Bark, the Carnival Moves On... Revisiting Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust
The Dogs Bark, the Carnival Moves On... Revisiting Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust

Summary/Abstract: Modernity and the Holocaust is now thirty years old. How should we respond to the book, its controversy, and its history or context? In this essay I offer three steps as a way into this labyrinth. First, I review the core claims of Bauman’s book (1989). Second, I use my four-volume edited collection of essays on his work (2002) as a decade check on its reception. Third, the new volume, Revisiting Modernity and the Holocaust: Heritage, Dilemmas, Extensions (2022) is brought into play as a third optic or time slice. I conclude that the book is a classic, which means we should still read it and use it as a marker, but also that the debate has out of necessity moved on. As Bauman used to say, “The dogs bark, the carnival moves on”.

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