Landscapes of Holocaust Postmemory

Description

How do the spaces of the past stay with us through representations—whether literary or photographic? How has the Holocaust registered in our increasingly globally connected consciousness? What does it mean that this European event is often used as an interpretive or representational touchstone for genocides and traumas globally? In this interdisciplinary study, Kaplan asks and attempts to answer these questions by looking at historically and geographically diverse spaces, photographs, and texts concerned with the physical and/or mental landscape of the Holocaust and its transformations from the postwar period to the early twenty-first century. Examining the intersections of landscape, postmemory, and trauma, Kaplan's text offers a significant contribution to our understanding of the spatial, visual, and literary reach of the Holocaust.

Contents

List of Figures Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction Section One: Burning Landscapes: The Transformation of Hitler’s Holiday Retreat 1: The Obersalzberg 2: Eva’s Cousin 3: Past Present Section Two: Burning Images: Three Photographers Explore Traumatic Landscapes 4: Lee Miller: No Stasis 5: Susan Silas: Helmbrechts walk 6: Collier Schorr: Reenacting Nazis Section Three: Burning Silence: The Uncanny Presence of the Holocaust in the Work of J.M. Coetzee 7: Life & Times 8: Foe 9: Elizabeth Costello and Disgrace Concluding Remarks Notes Bibliography Index

Author Bio

Brett Ashley Kaplan is an Associate Professor in the Program in Comparative and World Literature and the Program in Jewish Culture and Society at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Related Subjects

1. Jewish Studies
2. Cultural Studies
3. Photography