SCY2051

Genocide: totalitarianism, ideology and the individual

Proposed to be offered next in 1999

Naomi White

8 points
* 3 hours per week
* Caulfield
* Prerequisites: First-year SCY sequence or equivalent

Objectives To provide students with the opportunity to develop an understanding of the distinctive, defining characteristics of genocide and the structural characteristics of genocidal regimes; develop a critical awareness of the processes by which prejudice and discrimination become institutionalised and maintained; become informed about the events of the Holocaust; reflect on the question of individual and collective responsibility in totalitarian regimes; consider ways in which revisionist views of the Holocaust raise questions about what we accept as knowledge.

Synopsis The Holocaust will be studied in this subject. Topics include theories of genocide; the institutionalisation of prejudice and discrimination; Jewish life before World War Two; the rise of Nazism; the Nazi program of genocide; individual and collective action and inaction in genocidal regimes; the limits of representation of the Holocaust.

Assessment Essay (3000 words): 40%
* Seminar summary and presentation (1000 words): 20%
* Test (2 hours): 40%

Recommended texts

Levi P The drowned and the saved Michael Joseph, 1988
Weisenthal S The sunflower Schocken, 1976