Offered

 on the 3000 level!

 Freshmen Welcome!

(No prerequisites, taught in English)

For students of History, Foreign Languages, English, Political Science, Comparative Literature, etc.  Counts toward humanities requirement.  Counts toward the major and minor in German.  Fulfills the multicultural requirement.  Cannot be used to fulfill the foreign language requirement.

Despite the loss of innocence and despite the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust, poets have managed to write fascinating works about this subject.  Should one, however, attempt to come to terms with such a phenomenon in literature?  How can one describe the indescribable?  How should art–how can art–represent the inhuman reality of the Holocaust without sentimentalizing or falsifying it?

This course examines the ways in which European and American writers and film makers have attempted to portray the events in Europe from the first systematic persecution of political opponents, social undesirables, and Jews to the liberation of the concentration camps and the attempts of inmates to return to a normal life.  It examines the experiences of men and women from different countries and different backgrounds who became, willingly or unwillingly participants in the Holocaust.