Finkielkraut first came to public attention when he and Pascal Bruckner co-authored a number of short but controversial essays intended to question the idea that a new emancipation was underway; these included "The New Love Disorder" (1977) ("Le Nouveau Désordre amoureux") and "At the Corner of the Street" (1978) ("Au Coin de la rue"), as well as "The Adventure" (1979) ("L'aventure"). Finkielkraut then began publishing singly authored works on the public's betrayal of memory and our intransigence in the presence of events that, he argued, should move the public. This reflection led Finkielkraut to address post-Holocaust Jewish identity in Europe ("The Imaginary Jew") (1983) ("le Juif imaginaire"). Seeking to promote what he calls a duty of memory, Finkielkraut also published "The Future of a Negation: Reflexion on the Genocide Issue" (1982) ("Avenir d'une négation : réflexion sur la question du génocide") and later his comments on the Klaus Barbie trial, "Remembering in Vain" ("La Mémoire vaine").