Admission requirements
Propedeuse Humanities
Description
Collective memory of the Shoah is produced by testimonies such as Anne Frank’s diary, by documentaries such as Lanzmanns Shoah, by works of literature, by mainstream movies such as Schindler’s List, or in artworks, musea and memorial sites. In the dual context of both memory studies and representation analysis we will look at the different functions and effects that such works have and have had over time in the construction of cultural memory.
In this interactive class, the central topics of Shoah-memory will be discussed: memory and oblivion, truth and event, documentataion, the archive, sacralisation, irony, autobiography, Shoah-idols, aura and authenticity, and the function of mass-media. Among the cases discussed will be sites like ‘De Hollandsche Schouwburg’ and the Anne Frank House, digital monuments such as the Dutch online Jewish monument, work by Abel Herzberg, Carl Friedman, Armando, Primo Levi, Georges Perec, Steven Reich, Yael Bartana and Arnon Grunberg.
Representation analysis will demonstrate in which ways the Shoah is represented, and we will study the different ways in which trauma manifests itself and how collective memory is constructed by the different representations. Theoretical texts by Giorgio Agamben, Saul Friedlander, Marianne Hirsch, Ernst van Alphen and Ann Rigney will be used in our analyses.
Course objectives
You will acquire knowledge of cultural memory- and representation theory and additionally become aware of cultural dynamics in the representation of historical events in art, literature and memorial sites. You will be trained in the analysis of the signification strategies and effects of the objects under scrutiny. In this course, you will also learn to write and present well argumented interpretations of such works, and you will be able to recognize the icons, idols and clichés of Shoah representations.
Timetable
See the timetable of Nederlandse taal en cultuur
Mode of instruction
Weekly Seminar
Excursion to the Hollandse Schouwburg and the Anne Frankhouse in Amsterdam.
Course Load
140 hours:
Seminars: 42 hours
Time for studying the compulsory literature and preparing the assignments: 42 hours
Time for reading the primary literature: 30
(If applicable) time to write a paper (including reading / research): 26 hours
Assessment method
Assessment and grading method (in percentages):.
Essay (60%)
Weekly assignments (20%)
Presentation (20%)
For each part of the assessment at least a 5.5 should be obtained. The final grade is the weighted average of all grades.
Resit
- Only the paper has a resit possibility.
Blackboard
There will be a Blackboard module for the course, which contains relevant course information such as the weekly reading and assignments. Since Blackboard makes use of umail for communication, students are advised to forward their umail to their regular email address:
Blackboard
Reading list
Primo Levi, If this is a man. Translation Stuart Woolf.
Arnon Grunberg, De Asielzoeker.
Tadeusz Borowski, This way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Art Spiegelman, Maus, 2 parts.
Anne Frank, The Diary of Anne Frank.
Alphen, E. Van. (1997) Caught by history. Holocaust effects in Contemporary Art, Literature and Theory. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Friedländer, S. (ed.). Probing the limits of representation. Nazism and ‘the final solution’. Cambridge, Ma, Harvard University Press. Introduction.
Anne Rothe, (2011) Popular trauma culture: Selling the pain of others in the mass media, Rutgers University Press.
Stier, O.B. (2003) Committed to memory. Cultural Mediations of the Holocaust. Amherst and Boston, University of Massachusetts Press.
Further reading will be announced in class.
Registration
Registration via uSis
Registration Contractonderwijs
Registration Contractonderwijs
Contact
Fort questions about the content of this course: “Prof. dr. Y. van Dijk”:mailto:y.van.dijk@hum.leidenuniv.nl
For practical matters you may contact the secretarial office of the Opleiding Nederlandse Taal en Cultuur/Neerlandistiek. It is the Onderwijsadministratie P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 101A. Tel. 071 5272 2604. E-mail is: osz-oa-eyckhof@hum.leidenuniv.nl.
Remarks
Students with doubts about the level of their English should consider taking an autumn course here. If that is not possible, please contact Yra van Dijk.