CLCS 271 Holocaust Memory in Berlin: Traces of the Third Reich in Cultural Narratives, Architecture, Memorial
We live in an epoch obsessed with memory: its specter haunts an array of activities - intellectual, creative, and political; its processes shadow our individual and collective lives. And yet, despite this ubiquity, the idea of memory remains elusive and forever mutable, for, depending on the context in which it is invoked and the purpose for which it is intended, it may take on a range of forms. The context in which students will study the workings of memory is Berlin, a place which has become emblematic of various aspects of the Holocaust. The questions guiding the inquiry into the often conflicted postwar politics of memory in Germany are the following: how does a nation deploy memory to create a positive identity? How do public representations work to elide, confirm, or undermine a constantly shifting historical discourse? And to what extent, finally, are minorities or "the other" included in, or excluded from, the business of inventing national identity? Students will read, visit, and analyze a wide variety of cultural texts, such as literary accounts, memorials, historical sites, exhibits, architectural structures, and films, in an attempt to chart the often tortuous process by which a nation comes to terms with its past, and projects itself into the future. Using some of the rich scholarly literature on memory that has been produced in the wake of the Holocaust, the class will examine a variety of sites in order to compare how our core questions are inflected by various political circumstances and cultural pressures. This course has no prerequisites if taken as a CLCS course. There is also an option to take it for German cultural credit without prerequisites or as German language credit. To take it as a German language credit, students must have completed GER 300 with a C, or have obtained the instructor’s permission.