Representations of the HolocaustRemembrance

Ilana Goor, “Never Again” (Yad Vashem)

CTMP 3321Winter 2014

Time and place: Tuesday – Thursday, 1.05 p.m. – 2.25 p.m.; Archibald Room, New Academic Building, 3rd Floor Instructor: Dr. Dorota GlowackaOffice hours: Wednesday, 11.30– 12.30

Thursday, 2.30 - 3.30Friday, 10.30 – 11.30

E-mail: glowacka@dal.ca (please include “CTMP 3322” in the subject line)Blackboard (OWL) is being used for this course at ilo.owl.dal.ca. All assignments, including paper proposals, should be handed in on OWL. Please contact the instructor via e-mail immediately if you experience any difficulties with accessing OWL.

Note: Basic knowledge about the history of the Holocaust is recommended for this class. For a comprehensive background reading on the history of the Holocaust, see Doris L. Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (copies available at the King's bookstore). See also the website for USHMM in Washington, http://www.ushmm.org

Please note: You have to attend at least 50% of the classes in order to pass this course. Please make sure you sign the attendance sheet and present valid documentation to excuse your absence.

Please note: The class on January 9 has been cancelled.

Week #1

Jan. 7Introduction to the course: the politics of memory “after Auschwitz”

Jan. 9Class cancelled

Narrating traumatic history and transmission of traumaWeek #2Jan. 14Screening of Abraham Bomba episode from Claude Lanzmann’s film ShoahReadings: Cathy Caruth, “Introduction” to Trauma Claude Lanzmann, Shoah. The Complete Text (book), pp. 101 - 108Claude Lanzmann, “Seminar with Claude Lanzmann” (reader)

Jan. 16Screening of Franz Suchomel and Simon Srebrnik episodesReadings: Claude Lanzmann, Shoah. The Complete Text, pp. 95-101; 1-4; 84-92; Shoshana Felman, “In the Era of Testimony: The Return of the Voice: ClaudeLanzmann’s Shoah”Ewa Kuryluk, “Memory and Responsibility: Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah” (reader)Marianna Hirsch and Leo Spitzer, “Gendered Translations” (reader)

The second generation: transgenerational transmission of memoryChildren of Holocaust survivors, children of perpetrator, and witnesses to history.

Week #3Jan. 21Readings: Aaron Haas, excerpts from In the Shadow of the HolocaustExcerpt from Helen Epstein, Children of the Holocaust; Deb Filler, "Kicking and Weeping" (from Daughters of Absence); readerStudent presentation on Holocaust humour

Jan. 23Reading: Art Spiegelman, Complete Maus, Part I (book)

Week #4Jan. 28 Art Spiegelman, Complete Maus, Part II (workshop: class divided into groups)

Jan. 30 Reading: excerpts from Dan Bar-on’s Legacy of Silence: Encounters with Children of the Third Reich (reader)Screening: excerpt from Dark Lullabies (and/or other documentaries)

Children of perpetrators and Second-Generation EncountersWeek #5Feb. 4

Guest lecture by Annette Wolf

Feb. 6Student presentations on children of perpetrators and encounters between children of survivors and children of perpetrators; Possible topics: Anna Elisabeth Rosmus, Against the Stream: Growing up Where Hitler Used to Live and the film Nasty Girl; Himmler's Children;

Theology After the HolocaustWeek #6Feb. 11Reading: Emil Fackenheim, “Holocaust” and "To Mend the World" (reader)Student presentation on the document "Dabru Emet" and/or other aspects of Jewish theology after the Holocaust

Feb. 13Reading: A. Roy Eckhardt, “Christians and the Jews” (reader)Student presentations on John Cornwell’s Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII and on the legacy of Pope John Paul II

STUDY BREAK

Dilemmas of art “after Auschwitz”Week #7Feb. 25Illustrated lecture: “Witnesses against themselves: visual art after the Holocaust”Reading: excerpt from Mindy Weisel’s Daughters of Absence, “Memorial Candles: Beauty as Consolation” (posted on OWL)

Feb. 27Student presentations on Holocaust monumentsReadings: James E. Young, The Texture of Memory; “The Biography of a Memorial Icon,” and “The Countermonument: Memory Against Itself in Germany”

Memory on display: Holocaust museums and memorialsWeek #8March 4Illustrated lecture: “Americanization of the Holocaust”: USHMM in Washington and the Montreal Holocaust Memorial CenterReadings: Oren Baruch Stier, “Mediating Memory: Holocaust Museums and the Display of Remembrance” (from Committed Memory)Paul Williams, "The Surviving Object: Presence and Absence in Memorial Museums" (from: Memorial Museums)Take-home exam given: due March 25

March 6

Student presentations on Holocaust museums Yad Vashem: Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in JerusalemPaństwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oświęcim, PolandJewish Museum in Berlin and the sites of former Nazi camps in Germany (Dachau and Buchenwald)Reading: “Auschwitz” excerpt from Tim Cole’s Selling the Holocaust

Holocaust fictions Week #9March 11Reading: Zvi Kolitz, Yosl Rakover Talks to God (book)Student presentation: Holocaust fictions

March 13Reading: excerpt from Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones (reader); workshop: class divided into groupsStudent presentation: Holocaust fictions

Holocaust on filmWeek #10March 18Screening of excerpts from: Schindler's List; Life is Beautiful; In Darkness Reading: TBA (posted on OWL)

March 20Student presentations on Holocaust film

Memory Wars: Holocaust denialWeek # 11March 25Holocaust denial in CanadaReading: Manuel Prutschi “The Zündel Affair” (from Anti-Semitism in Canada)Take-home exam due

March 27Student presentations Possible topics: Errol Morris’ film Mr Death The Rise and Fall of Fred A Leuchter Jr.Anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in Eastern and central Europe“New” anti-semitism: the Middle East

Holocaust in comparative perspectivesWeek #12April 1Reading: excerpts from Barbara Coloroso’s Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide and from Immaculé Ilibagiza’s Left to Tell Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan HolocaustLilian Friedberg, "Dare to Compare: Americanizing the Holocaust"

Chrystos, "Winter Count" (poem); posted on OWLPaper proposal due

April 3New paradigms: "The Postcolonial Turn", Multidirectional Memory, and GenderReading: excerpts from Michael Rothberg, Multidirectional Memory

Term paper due Monday, April 21, at midnight.

Course requirements:Term paper 35%Take-home exam 30%Presentation or book/film report 20% Attendance 10%Participation 5%

Term paper: The term paper is a research paper on the topic of your own choice, related to the course content and approved by the instructor, approximately 11-13 pages in length (double-spaced, font-size 12). Research and proper documentation format are required. The paper will be marked for the originality and strength of the thesis, consistency of the argument, ability to critically engage with the text, proper use of research materials, and the mechanics of writing.

Take-home exam: The take-home exam will consist of several short-essay questions related to the course content. It should be approximately 8-10 pages in length.

Choice of class presentation or book/film report: You will have a choice of doing either an in-class oral presentation on one of the topics and on the dates indicated on the syllabus or of writing a report on a book, essay or film, with a summary to be circulated to the other students in this class. There will be about 20 spots available for class presentations, and they will be allocated on the “first-come-first-serve” basis.

Attendance: it is your responsibility to make sure you sign the attendance sheet.

Grading scale:A+ 90-100%A 85-89%A- 80-84%B+ 77-79%B 73-76%B- 70-72%C+ 65-69%C 60-64%C- 55-59D 50-54

*Books available at the King’s Bookstore (basement of the New Academic Bldg); the reader available from Dal Print, Life and Science Building.* Term papers handed in without proposals approved by the instructor will not be accepted.* Work handed in late will be marked down by 1% of a mark per day.

Students with disabilities should register as quickly as possible atStudent Accessibility Services if they want to receive academicaccommodations. To do so please phone 494-2836, e-mail<disabilities@dal.ca>, or drop in at the Killam, G28.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the presentation of the work of another author in such a way as to give one=s reader reason to think it to be one’s own. A student who is in any doubt as to what constitutes plagiarism is urged to discuss the matter with the instructor before completing the assignment. Plagiarism may constitute grounds for expulsion - see the statement on discipline in the University Calendar (University Regulation