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The Holocaust in Literature and Film

I: Introduction to Holocaust Studies​

1a: The Holocaust as Symbol and Warning

1b: Text as Testimony: Jankiel Wiernik’s “One Year in Treblinka”

1c: Crimes that cannot be Ignored in Alain Resnais’ Night and Fog (1956)

 
II: Precursors to the Holocaust​

2a: Precursors: Political Systems of Terror

2b: Precursors: Diaries and Documentation: Death by a Thousand Gnat Bites.

2c: The Problems of Representation in Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah.

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III: Life and Death in Auschwitz​

3a: The Camp System of Destruction

3b: The New Normal: Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz

3c: Traumatic Obfuscation in Lazlo Nemes’ Son of Saul

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IV: The Cost of Survival​

4a: Enslavement, Experimentation, and Economics

4b: Visions of Hell: Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz

4c: The Problems of Heroism in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993)

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V: Review

5A: Finding Your Topic

5B: Analysis of Aesthetics (Style)

5C: History and Interpretation

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VI: Shifting Perspective​

6a: The Invasion of the Family and Women’s Voices.

6b: The Closing of Vienna: Ruth Kluger’s Still Alive.

6c: Indoctrination, Ideology, and Identity: Agnieszka Holland’s Europa Europa (1990)

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VII: A Girlhood Remembered​

7a: The Family Camp, Theresienstadt, and the ‘Gift of the City’

7b: Children of the Holocaust: Ruth Kluger’s Still Alive

7c: The Logic of the Wrong Victim: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)

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VIII: Stepping Out of Line​

8a: Refusal: Rescuers and Survival

8b: Freedom and the Fight for Compassion: Ruth Kluger’s Still Alive

8c: The Stakes of Hybrid Documentary Dramas: Claus Raefle’s The Invisibles (2017)

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IX: The Aftermath​

9a: Coercion and Corruption: The Holocausts by Bullets

9b: Generational Trauma and the Graphic Form: Art Spiegelman’s Maus I

9c: Visualization of Traumatic Memory: Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker (1964)​

 
X: The Past is Present​

10a: Reparations and the Rape of Europa

10b: Time and Trauma in the Graphic Form II: Art Spiegelman’s Maus II

10c: The Post-War Legacy of Austria: The Woman in Gold (2015)

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XI: Avoidance and Confrontation​

11a: Confronting the Nazi Past in Germany and Abroad

11b: The Discomfort of Confronting Abuse: Bernhard Schlink's The Reader

11c: A Psychological Study of Generations: Arnon Goldfinger’s The Flat (2011)

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XII: Generational Conflict​

12a: On German Guilt and Responsibility

12b: Ethical Considerations of Holocaust Fiction: Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader

12c: Melodrama and Totalitarianism: Stephen Daldry’s The Reader (2009)

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XIV: Resistance, Remembrance, and Resurgence

13a: Remembrance and Memorialization

13b: Contemporary Challenges

13c: Impulses of Holocaust Denial: Deborah Lipstadt’s “Behind the Lies of Holocaust Denial”

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XV: Review

14A: Video Presentation Workshop

14B: Creative Presentation Workshop

14C: Alternative Project Workshop

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