English 100

Other Readings and Media

Amery, J.: At the Mind's Limits; Borowski, T.: This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen; Clendinnen, I.: Reading the Holocaust; Delbo, C.: Auschwitz and After; Levi, P.: The Drowned and the Saved; Schiff, H. ed.: Holocaust Poetry; Schlink, B.: The Reader; Spiegelman, A.: Maus I and Maus II; course reader

Description

The German philosopher Theodor Adorno made the famous comment that to write poetry after Auschwitz was barbaric--but not to produce it even more barbarous. In this class we will focus on how literary art responds to this paradoxical injunction. How can one depict the unimaginable in writing? What limits, if any, are there upon representation of the Shoah ? How does literature shape contemporary awareness of the event? We will focus on the tension between moral and artistic integrity, exploring how different narrative strategies and genres express or evade the moral issue inherent in the subject. The course material ranges from the testimonial to the comic book, poetry to propaganda, scholarship to bestseller.