Holocaust Literature

Module overview

How has the Holocaust been represented? We will examine a range of responses to the Holocaust from the 1940s to the present day, including memoirs of camp survivors and experimental texts. Focusing on the limits of representation we will approach questions concerning memory, trauma and the aestheticization of horror through testimony, fiction, poetry and film.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

The key theoretical debates surrounding the moral and representational challenges posed by the Holocaust
Literary responses to individual and collective trauma.
The aestheticisation of horror.
The relationship between history and memory.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

Demonstrate confidence and independence of thought
Make connections across texts written from different perspectives
Analyse and explain the ‘limits of representation’ in relation to Holocaust literature
Problematise the term ‘Holocaust literature’
Evaluate complex material and other critical opinions of Holocaust texts

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

Analyse complex written texts and visual material including film
Identify and draw upon a range of primary and secondary source materials

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include • lectures • seminars • consultation hours • individual feedback on assessed work • group work • visits to archives and museums. Participation on this trip/field visit is not a formal requirement of the module, though you are strongly encouraged to attend wherever possible. Learning activities include • reading and researching • preparing and delivering presentations • contributing to an online group project through the blackboard website • Visual and textual analysis • Formal essay Innovative or special features of this module • One of the informal learning activities will be an online blog to which you will be required to contribute. You will be assigned one week and be asked to post a summary of either your seminar presentation, the lecture or the set reading for that week. You are encouraged, but not expected, to provide constructive feedback by way of peer-assessment.

Study time
Type	Hours
Independent Study	256
Teaching	44
Total study time	300

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Dominick LaCapra (1997). Representing the Holocaust: History, Theory, Trauma.

Lawrence Langer (1996). Admitting the Holocaust: Collected Essays.

Omar Bartov (1997). Murder in our Midst: The Holocaust, Industrial Killing and Representation.

Michael Bernard-Donals and Richard Glejzer (2001). Between Witness and Testimony: the Holocaust and the Limits of Representation.

Michael R. Marrus (1987). The Holocaust in History.

Robert Eaglestone (2004). The Holocaust and the Postmodern.

Saul Friedlander, ed (1992). Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the ‘Final Solution’.

James E. Young (1988). Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust: Narrative and the Consequences of Interpretation.

Assessment

Assessment strategy

Assessments designed to provide informal, on-module feedback • In-class group discussion and oral presentations • On-going online peer-assessed group project

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Essay	40%
Essay	60%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Resubmit assessments	100%

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Essay	40%
Essay	60%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External