LT390-6-SP-CO:
The Limits of Representation: The Holocaust in Literature and Film

The details
2024/25
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 6
Current
Monday 13 January 2025
Friday 21 March 2025
15
27 August 2024

 

Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)

 

(none)

Key module for

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Module description

This module considers the enduring significance of the events known as the Holocaust (or Shoah) as they enter representation and continue to shape our present responses to various forms of racism and violence against the Other. It explores how the Holocaust has been represented, appropriated and reconfigured by writers, poets and filmmakers over the past seven decades.


We will examine the connections between history, trauma, and representation through an analysis of Holocaust testimonies, literature, film and visual media. How do novelists, poets, filmmakers and artists depict events that shatter traditional forms of comprehension and representation? How do imagination, memory and history coalesce in works of art? What is the relationship between aesthetics and ethics, and what are the limits of representation?


The module looks at numerous examples of Holocaust literature and film, from short story and autobiographical novel, through lyric poetry, drama and graphic novel, to documentary and recent Academy Award-winning productions. We will discuss the issues of testimony and witnessing, the aestheticization and commercialization of trauma and suffering, and the moral, philosophical and cultural legacy of the Holocaust.

Module aims

The aims of this module are:



  • To foster students’ critical thinking by inviting them to consider how the Holocaust as the major event of Western modernity has been represented and appropriated by artists, writers and filmmakers since the 1950s to the present day.

  • To reflect on the moral, philosophical and cultural legacy of the Holocaust.

  • To become familiar with key theoretical concepts relating to testimony, witnessing, representation and cultural memory, as well as the critical debates on the limits of representation.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:



  1. Display knowledge and understanding of an interdisciplinary selection of literary texts, films and visual art on the Holocaust.

  2. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the development of ways of representing and conceptualizing the Holocaust from the post-war to the present day.

  3. Display understanding of key concepts such as trauma, testimony, cultural memory and the limits of representation.

  4. Demonstrate knowledge and skills required to engage in intellectual debates on representation and memorialization of the Holocaust.

  5. Participate in teamwork and demonstrate team-based communication skills, including presentation and discussion skills.

Module information

No additional information available.

Learning and teaching methods

This module will be delivered via:

  • Weekly 2-hour seminar

Bibliography

  • Elie Wiesel [et al.] (1977) Dimensions of the Holocaust: lectures at Northwestern University. Evanston, IL: The University.
  • Brecht, B. (2009) Fear and Misery of the Third Reich. Edited by C. Ryland. Bloomsbury Publishing. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6159283.
  • Brecht, B. (1971) ‘The Jewish Wife’. New York?: Phoenix Films. Available at: https://archive.org/details/thejewishwife_201701.
  • Nemes, L. (2015) ‘Son of Saul’. Available at: https://login.learningonscreen.ac.uk/wayfless.php?entityID=https%3A%2F%2Fidp0.essex.ac.uk%2Fshibboleth&target=https%3A%2F%2Flearningonscreen.ac.uk%2Fondemand%2Findex.php%2Fprog%2F12D6323E%3Fbcast%3D128373898.
  • Saxton, L. (2008) ‘(In)visible Evidence: Shoah’, in Haunted Images - Film, Ethics, Testimony, and the Holocaust. London: Wallflower Press, pp. 23–45.
  • Borowski, T. and Vedder, B. (1992) This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. London: Penguin Books Ltd.
  • Wiesel, E. (1974) Night; Dawn; The accident: three tales. London: Robson. Available at: https://essexuni.overdrive.com/media/874001.
  • Langer, L. (1991) ‘Unheroic Memory: The Diminished Self’, in Holocaust testimonies: the ruins of memory. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 162–205.
  • White, H. (1992) ‘Historical emplotment and the problem of truth’, in Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the ‘Final Solution’. Harvard University Press, pp. 37–55.
  • Paul Celan (2001) Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
  • Sachs, N. (1968) Selected poems?: including the verse play ‘Eli’. London: Cape.
  • Radnóti, M. and George, E.E. (1980) The complete poetry. Ann Arbor, Mich: Ardis.
  • Daroczi, J.C. and Stojka, C. (2019) ‘Auschwitz is My Overcoat, In Memory of the Gypsy Victims of the Holocaust’, in Poetry of the Holocaust: an anthology. Todmorden: Arc Publications, pp. 152–155.
  • Reznikoff, C. (2009) Holocaust. Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications.
  • Vice, S. (2008) ‘Holocaust Poetry and Testimony’, Critical Survey, 20(2), pp. 7–17. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41556263.
  • Krall, H. (2012) Woman from Hamburg, The: And Other True Stories. Other Press (NY).
  • Lengyel, O. (2020) Five Chimneys. General Press.
  • Fink, I. (1998) Traces: Stories. New York: Henry Holt & Company Inc.
  • Fink, I. (1995) Scrap of Time and Other Stories. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
  • Waxman, Z. (2003) ‘Unheard Testimony, Untold Stories: the representation of women’s Holocaust experiences’, Women’s History Review, 12(4), pp. 661–677. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09612020300200715.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam Description Deadline Coursework weighting
Coursework   Presentation    25% 
Coursework   Research Essay (3,000 words)  28/03/2025  70% 
Practical   Participation    5% 

Exam format definitions

  • Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
  • In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework Exam
100% 0%

Reassessment

Coursework Exam
100% 0%
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Joanna Rzepa, email: joanna.rzepa@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Joanna Rzepa
LiFTS General Office - liftstt@essex.ac.uk Tel. 01206 87 2626

 

Availability
Yes
Yes
No

External examiner

Dr Doug Haynes
University of Sussex
Reader in American Literature and Visual Culture
Resources
Available via Moodle
Of 2 hours, 2 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.

 

Further information
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies

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