HYM4290 - Holocaust memories: landscape, mourning, identity

Leader: Associate Professor Mark Baker

Offered

Clayton First semester 2008 (Day)

Synopsis

This unit will trace the changing contours of Holocaust memory from the end of the Second World War to the present. Themes to be discussed include debates about the uniqueness of the Holocaust and its use as the paradigmatic genocide; 'death camp tourism' and the topography of genocide; testimonies and other forms of writing by survivors and their children; the religious challenges of the Holocaust and the ritualisation of memory; commemoration in national and international spheres; memory, forgetfulness and denial; the inter-generational transmission of trauma; and the relationship that remembering the Holocaust has to Jewish identity and to Jewish political existence.

Objectives

Upon completion of the course, students will be expected:

1. To understand the difference between individual, social, national and official memories;
2. To appreciate the various way of representing the Holocaust: autobiography, memoir, testimony, and oral history;
3. To understand some of the ways in which memory becomes history and how each shape personal and national identities;
4. To be able to analyse sites of memory, such as museums and locations, and different media of memory, such as film and art, and to discuss their impact on collective memorialisation; and
5. Formulate their own positions on key issues based on a critical engagement with the historiography and relevant primary sources.

Assessment

Seminar Participation: 10%; Short Essay (3000 words): 30%; Research Essay (6000 words): 60%.

Contact hours

One 2 hour seminar

Prohibitions

HSY4290, HYM5290