The Literature of the Holocaust
Al Filreis profile
TR 1:30-3
This course will cover many issues and aspects of the European
Holocaust of the Second World War, with special and sustained
attention given to problems of language created by survivors' urgent
will to bear witness. The course might be better titled, "The
Literature of Survivors"; it is not a history course in any
conventional sense, even though students' basic historical idea of the
period is important. (Students who find themselves admitted to the
seminar by PARIS would do well this summer to read Terrence Des Pres's
book, The Survivor. A thorough reading of a historical account of the
Holocaust, for instance Lucy Dawidowicz', will certainly also be
helpful.) Course readings will include works by Elie Wiesel, Primo
Levi, Hannah Arendt, Tadeusz Borowski, Thomas Keneally, and others;
visual texts will include video testimonies from the Yale Archive of
Holocaust Testimonies and the Facing History & Ourselves Foundation,
as well as the astonishing 9.5-hour film Shoah in its entirety. The
seminar operates purely as a seminar, where students' total
involvement in class discussion is the most basic assumption.
Students will write many one-page "position papers." There will be a
final examination, individualized for each student. Also note:
students must be available for required film screenings on a number of
Wednesday evenings. Students who are unable to register for this
course are urged to enroll in English 271.601 Theatre of the Holocaust
with Ed Isser (see CGS section for description).
updated 2006-10-12
