Remembering, Imagining, and Teaching the Holocaust in America
SCHC 350T-501
PROSEM: HOLOCAUST IN AMERICA MW 2:30-3:45 F.K. CLEMENTI
Office hrs: M/W 12-2:30/4-5 BUT write to announce your visit, so that I’ll be there for sure
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The Holocaust did not happen in America: yet, isn’t it a pervasive subject of American
movies, novels, Broadway shows, dramas, documentary films and TV series? (Not to
mention the tremendous outpour of academic research on it?) Aren’t the canonic
Holocaust texts (Elie Wiesel, Anne Frank) part of most school curricula, and aren’t
American students often brought to visit Holocaust memorials and museums in their
towns (sometimes even out of State or abroad)? Why this fascination? What’s the
fascination!
This course focuses on the way in which writers, filmmakers, artists and cultural institutions
(museums, schools, etc.) have contributed to the construction of an indelible
“Holocaust memory” in America since the end of WWII. We will study the
representations of the Holocaust through a variety of media and genres:
documentaries, feature films, museum exhibits, photographs, oral histories and some of
the classics of Holocaust literature (memoirs, fiction, and comics). The main concern of
our exploration is not “how” (or “why”) this atrocious genocide happened, but in what
way such untellable experiences can be told through the arts. And if they can be told.
A selection of secondary sources will illustrate the historical context of the Holocaust
and enrich our discussions with interesting and discomforting questions from the
perspective of literary theory, gender studies, philosophy, and more.
In order to have a valid term of comparison, however, I thought it important to include
in the syllabus a few readings and some feature films from Europe or by non-American
artists. This will offer us the opportunity to draw interesting parallels between different
aesthetic languages applied to the same subject.
Furthermore, a course about “Holocaust representation” must cover, at least in part, a
study of what the Holocaust was and how it happened. Therefore, we will integrate our
readings about cultural production with readings and lectures about Holocaust history.
EXPECTATIONS
PARTICIPATION IS CRUCIAL. Your role will be a quite active and interactive one: you are
expected to think, discuss, bring up issues, teach to and learn from your colleagues.
Your main task will be to read all the required texts. Your central duty will be to talk
about them in class. Reading and participation are expected and considered
fundamental to each student’s success. The emphasis is on critical thinking, analysis
and oral exposition.
Quizzes and exams are extremely important factors: you will be tested on your ability to
recognize, identify and contextualize a literary work, to explain critical terms and
specific terminology encountered during our discussions, and to write about literature in
a mature, deep, critical way.
Weekly responses to the assignments: Each time a new text is due or you watch a new
film (see schedule), all students hand in a one-page (or 1½) response to the
reading/movie. This should not be a summary, but a critical response and sum-up of
your first impression of the given text.
Films and other visuals constitute a central part of your homework, my lectures, and our
discussions. You cannot leave the classroom while films or other visual presentations are
being shown; you should take notes, because you will be tested about these films in the
quizzes and exams.
Learning Outcomes: By the end of the course:
- students will have been exposed to an array of primary texts which, together with
some very famous names, include less known authors that will allow for a deeply
comparative look at what has been published outside of the United States on the
subject of the Holocaust;
- interpret texts in all their facets (literary, narrative, linguistic, historical, etc.);
- students will have learned several theoretical approaches to the subject matter;
- learn to frame literary production in historical context;
- greatly improve their critical skills;
- raise interpretative questions about each text and relate texts to one another;
- Holocaust theory has developed a vocabulary of its own to deal with issues of
memory, memorialization and trauma categorization: students will be exposed to and
will learn the terminology and understand how it both originated in Shoah discourse
while slowly being appropriated, morphed and reused/misused by other similar or
dissimilar contemporary discourses.
Grade Distribution:
Attendance is mandatory
Consistent and informed participation (15%++)
Quizzes & Reading Responses (20%)
Exams 1 & 3 (30%)
Midterm (20%)
Final exam (15%)
Performance reader:
A (100-90): perfect
B+ (89-86): very good
B (85-80): good
C+ (79-76): satisfactory
C (75-70): poor
D+ (69-66): deficient
D (65-60): seriously deficient
F (<69): failed this course’s expectations
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Our Rules
We maintain a respectful, democratic, open-minded, tolerant atmosphere in our
classroom. Everybody’s opinion, point of view, comment is welcome.
Disagreement with others’ points of view is also welcome, but it must be expressed
with intelligence and extreme respect for our colleagues’ freedom to think
independently.
1.
2.
Students must attend lessons, read assigned material and do their homework.
Deadlines CANNOT be missed.
3.
Students are allowed 3 absences (of whatever nature): instructor will exact grade
penalties (½ letter grade) for each exceeding absence. (25% absence is
automatic Failure.)
4.
Thrice late = 1 absence.
5.
You will not be allowed to take a test, if you enter the classroom late and your
colleagues have already begun working on the quiz or exam.
6.
In case of absence, it is the student’s responsibility to get information about what
was discussed in class, as well as copies of hand-outs, and to be up-to-speed with
new assignments. DO NOT WRITE TO ME TO ASK WHAT YOU MISSED (OR WORSE “IF
YOU MISS ANYTHING IMPORTANT”) WHILE YOU WERE ABSENT.
7.
Plagiarism: “Intentionally representing the words, ideas, or sequence of ideas of
another as one’s own in any academic exercise; failure to attribute any of the
following: quotations, paraphrases, or borrowed information” (definition from
Webster’s English Dictionary). You are responsible for understanding accepted
definitions of plagiarism before the first assignment is due. The general rule: if in
doubt, ask.
If caught plagiarizing (no matter “how much”), students will Fail and report to the Dean.

DO NOT USE YOUR LAP-TOP TO TAKE NOTES OR OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES TO
PHONE/TEXT/TWEET/ETC. IN CLASS DURING LESSON TIME.

NO BATHROOM VISITS DURING EXAMS
Email exchanges between this class and the professor will take place exclusively
through university email accounts. If you like your public account better (yahoo, gmail,
hotmail, etc.) make sure all correspondence is forwarded to that domain automatically
or you may miss important communication, assignments, changes in the schedule, etc.
NO FOOD. NO TEXT-MESSAGING. CELLULAR PHONES MUST BE SILENCED during our
lessons.
Thank you.
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HOLOCAUST IN AMERICA Spring 2012 – Calendar
TEXTS
IN CLASS ACTIVITY
You must read
Monday
th
9
January
Wednesday
th
January 11
Monday
January
th
16
Wednesday
th
January 18
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTIONS
THE
JEWISHAMERICAN LOVE
STORY
February
Vocabulary
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ISRAEL ZANGWILL
NO CLASSES
THE MEMORIES
Monday
January
rd
23
Wednesday
th
January 25
Monday
January
th
30
Wednesday
st
February 1
Monday
th
6
FILMS
You must watch
on your own
Lucy Dawidowicz:
excerpts about history of
the Holocaust
A film
unfinished
Primo Levi
The Garden
Finzi Contini
of
Primo Levi
Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
THE “FICTIONS”
Holocaust in America
documentary
Au revoir les
enfants/Good
bye, children
Film work
Schindler’s
List
Wednesday
th
February 8
Monday February
th
13
Wednesday
th
February 15
Monday
th
20
February
Wednesday
nd
February 22
Monday February
th
27
Cynthia Ozick
Cynthia Ozick
Go over class notes,
vocabulary,
readings/films, and article
about Elie Wiesel [posted
on coursekit.com]
EXAM #1
- Donald Margulies: The
Model Apartment
- Zygmund
Bauman:
Universality
or
Uniqueness?
[Article
posted on Coursekit.com]
The Model Apartment,
Donald Margulies
Comparing Lit. & Films:
Class discussion
Clips from The
Pawnbroker—Class
discussion/comparison
The Pawnbroker
Sophie’s
Choice
Wednesday
th
February 29
Go over class notes,
vocabulary,
readings/films, and read
ARTICLE
BY
PHYLLIS
DEUTSCH posted on
Coursekit.com
MIDTERM – EXAM #2
SPRING BREAK
SPRING BREAK
th
Monday March 5
Wednesday March
th
7
Monday
March
th
12
Wednesday March
th
14
Monday
March
th
19
Wednesday March
st
21
Monday
th
26
March
KZ DOCUMENTARY
PAPERCLIPS
DOCUMENTARY
“SECOND
GENERATION”
AND
OUR
GENERATION
The
“second
generation”: is it
possible
to
inherit Shoah?
Readings posted
on coursekit.com
Wednesday March
th
28
nd
Monday April 2
Wednesday April
th
4
th
Monday April 9
Wednesday April
th
11
Monday April 16
CLASS DISCUSSION OF
BOTH DOCUMENTARIES
MAUS
MAUS
Comparisons
with
Everything is Illuminated
I WAS A CHILD OF
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
I WAS A CHILD OF
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
EXAM #3
HOLOCAUST
PRESERVED: THE
MUSEUM
th
Wednesday April
th
18
rd
Monday April 23
th
April 30
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In Art Spiegelman’s
words: video clips
A JEW AMONG
GERMANS
SHOAH
MUSEUMS
AROUND THE WORLD
CLASS DISCUSSION
LAUGHTER
AFTER HITLER
LAST DAY OF CLASS
FINAL EXAM – EXAM #4
POWERPOINT
PRESENTATION, CLIPS
& IMAGES
JEWISH HUMOR IN
AMERICA: VIDEO CLIPS
CONCLUSIONS
Everything
Illuminated
Is