Introduction

This course will examine the problems and controversies surrounding the depiction of the Nazi period in German history from the perspectives of historians, playwrights and poets, literary critics, documentary and feature film directors and artists constructing public memorials in commemoration of the Holocaust. Works to be analyzed will include the historians: Charles S. Maier on the Historian's Debate in Germany in the 1980's, Finkelstein, Birn and Browning on Daniel Goldhagen's book: Hitler's Willing Executioners, Stannard and Katz on the question of the uniqueness of the Holocaust and Peter Novick on the role of the Holocaust in American life; the playwright Bertolt Brecht; the poets: Paul Celan and Nelly Sachs; and the film makers: Renais, Lina Wertmüller, Charley Chaplin, Steven Spielberg, Roberto Benigni, Ernst Lubitsch; the philosophers: Jürgen Habermas, Theodor Adorno, and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Reinhard Mayer (rmayer@skidmore.edu) x5214
Office: Palamountain 429
Office Hours: Monday / Wednesday 3:30 - 5:00