Representations of the Holocaust Remembrance

Ilana Goor, Never Again (Yad Vashem)

CTMP 3321
Winter 2014 Time and place: Tuesday Thursday, 1.05 p.m. 2.25 p.m.; Archibald Room, New Academic Building, 3rd Floor Instructor: Dr. Dorota Glowacka Office hours: Wednesday, 11.30 12.30 Thursday, 2.30 - 3.30 Friday, 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. 7 Introduction to the course: the politics of memory after Auschwitz Jan. 9 Class cancelled Narrating traumatic history and transmission of trauma Week #2 Jan. 14 Screening of Abraham Bomba episode from Claude Lanzmanns film Shoah Readings: Cathy Caruth, Introduction to Trauma Claude Lanzmann, Shoah. The Complete Text (book), pp. 101 - 108 Claude Lanzmann, Seminar with Claude Lanzmann (reader) Jan. 16 Screening of Franz Suchomel and Simon Srebrnik episodes Readings: 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: Claude Lanzmanns Shoah Ewa Kuryluk, Memory and Responsibility: Claude Lanzmanns Shoah (reader) Marianna Hirsch and Leo Spitzer, Gendered Translations (reader) The second generation: transgenerational transmission of memory Children of Holocaust survivors, children of perpetrator, and witnesses to history. Week #3 Jan. 21 Readings: Aaron Haas, excerpts from In the Shadow of the Holocaust Excerpt from Helen Epstein, Children of the Holocaust; Deb Filler, "Kicking and Weeping" (from Daughters of Absence); reader Student presentation on Holocaust humour Jan. 23 Reading: Art Spiegelman, Complete Maus, Part I (book) Week #4 Jan. 28 Art Spiegelman, Complete Maus, Part II (workshop: class divided into groups) Jan. 30 Reading: excerpts from Dan Bar-ons 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 Encounters Week #5

Feb. 4 Guest lecture by Annette Wolf Feb. 6 Student 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 Holocaust Week #6 Feb. 11 Reading: 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. 13 Reading: A. Roy Eckhardt, Christians and the Jews (reader) Student presentations on John Cornwells Hitlers Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII and on the legacy of Pope John Paul II STUDY BREAK Dilemmas of art after Auschwitz Week #7 Feb. 25 Illustrated lecture: Witnesses against themselves: visual art after the Holocaust Reading: excerpt from Mindy Weisels Daughters of Absence, Memorial Candles: Beauty as Consolation (posted on OWL) Feb. 27 Student presentations on Holocaust monuments Readings: 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 memorials Week #8 March 4 Illustrated lecture: Americanization of the Holocaust: USHMM in Washington and the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Center Readings: 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 Jerusalem Pastwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau in Owicim, Poland Jewish Museum in Berlin and the sites of former Nazi camps in Germany (Dachau and Buchenwald) Reading: Auschwitz excerpt from Tim Coles Selling the Holocaust Holocaust fictions Week #9 March 11 Reading: Zvi Kolitz, Yosl Rakover Talks to God (book) Student presentation: Holocaust fictions March 13 Reading: excerpt from Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones (reader); workshop: class divided into groups Student presentation: Holocaust fictions Holocaust on film Week #10 March 18 Screening of excerpts from: Schindler's List; Life is Beautiful; In Darkness Reading: TBA (posted on OWL) March 20 Student presentations on Holocaust film Memory Wars: Holocaust denial Week # 11 March 25 Holocaust denial in Canada Reading: Manuel Prutschi The Zndel Affair (from Anti-Semitism in Canada) Take-home exam due March 27 Student 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 perspectives Week #12 April 1 Reading: excerpts from Barbara Colorosos Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide and from Immacul Ilibagizas Left to Tell Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

Lilian Friedberg, "Dare to Compare: Americanizing the Holocaust" Chrystos, "Winter Count" (poem); posted on OWL Paper proposal due April 3 New paradigms: "The Postcolonial Turn", Multidirectional Memory, and Gender Reading: excerpts from Michael Rothberg, Multidirectional Memory Term paper due Monday, April 21, at midnight.

Course requirements: Term paper Take-home exam Presentation or book/film report Attendance Participation

35% 30% 20% 10% 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 (doublespaced, 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 inclass 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% A80-84% B+ 77-79% B 73-76% B70-72% C+ 65-69% C 60-64% C55-59 D 50-54

*Books available at the Kings 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 at Student Accessibility Services if they want to receive academic accommodations. 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 ones 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