HIS 336 The Holocaust and its Representation

The Holocaust, Shoah, or genocide of Jewish people by the Nazi regime, while recognized as a world-historical event, was an event of such staggering immensity that the human mind stumbles at the point of grasping it, retreating into a blur of statistics and over-generalizations on the one hand, or the over-particularity of the individual account on the other. There is no value-free position to be held within the realm of Holocaust studies or representations?a point that attests to the trauma of the event at the core of these representations, which will not simply take its place among other historical events. This seminar will explore the Holocaust through the controversies and discussions surrounding its representations in modes of representation that are historical, theoretical, cinematic, narrative, poetic, and artistic.