Representing the Unthinkable: The Holocaust in Art and Literature

Since the end of World War II, historians, social scientists, and psychologists have tried to find reasons and explanations for the Holocaust in Germany. Yet these accounts cannot fully satisfy our quest for understanding. Can art and literature illuminate those dimensions left unanswered by historical and psychological approaches? This course presents an overview of Holocaust representations in art and literature. Examining paintings and films, and reading survivors' testimonies, novels, poetry, and even comics, we address the following questions: How can art and literature represent the Holocaust? How can words express Auschwitz? Can the Holocaust be represented at all? 3 hrs. sem.