This course will examine comparative responses to and representations of violent conflict. We will pay attention to how catastrophic events are productive of new forms of expression--oral, written, and visual--as well as destructive of familiar ones. We will examine the ways in which experience and its representation interact during and in the aftermath of extreme violence. Our empirical cases will be drawn from our research on responses to WWII atrocities, and on the post-Cold War civil wars in Africa.

This course examines Japanese and Jewish responses to twentieth-century atrocities, paying close attention to how catastrophic events are treated in a variety of artistic forms, including memoir, fiction, feature film and filmed testimony, documentary, photography, painting, and music. Throughout, we will be asking about the possibilities, and the difficulties, of comparing responses by different cultures to different types of atrocities. The course will require close and careful reading, viewing, and writing.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills