Modern Literature - Spring 1998

We will read major works of Holocaust fiction and poetry, focusing on Holocaust literature as a problem in critical theory, cultural studies, and literary history. Though most of the works will be read in translation, some knowledge of European and Jewish languages will helpful. I plan to read five works by Primo Levi, one by Aharon Appelfeld, one each by Ida Fink, Janina Bauman, Ilona Karmel, and Dan Pagis. We will also read works of critical theory focusing on Holocaust literature, including the recent book by James Young, Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust. We will also see and discuss major Holocaust films. Lectures will focus on the immediate context of each writer's work, connecting work and life, sketching the writer's place in literary history, and both general and particular questions of critical theory and cultural studies. Each week's discussion section will focus on one text and contribute to building a comparative and theoretical framework. Memory and narrative, Holocaust literature as a topos, the construction of character, the theme of "passing," the treatment of historical events, and the question of incredibility will be addressed. The course will begin with a sketch of themes and critical problems which will then be addressed through discussion of the fiction and poetry; that process will lead to the raising of the themes and issues mentioned just above, and these will then, after further grounding in texts, lead to refinement of the critical problems.

There will be a two-day conference, "Film and the Holocaust: A Conversation," on April 22-23. We will be discussing films shown that week.

Two short papers and a final essay are required. Part of our work will involve web sites.

Literature/History 80W: Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, Literature 1, or permission of the instructor.

• Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz, Macmillan
• Primo Levi, Moments of Reprieve, Penguin
• Primo Levi, The Periodic Table, Schocken
• Primo Levi, If Not Now, When, Penguin
• Primo Levi, The Reawakening, Macmillan
• Aharon Appelfeld, Badenheim, 1939, Simon & Schuster
• Ida Fink, A Scrap of Time, Schocken
• Janina Bauman, Winter in the Morning, Macmillan
• Ilona Karmel, An Estate of Memory, Feminist Press
• Nehama Tec, Dry Tears, Oxford
• Dan Pagis, Points of Departure, Jewish Publication Society

• Art Spiegelmann, Maus, Random House
• James Young, Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust, Indiana
• Clive Sinclair, Blood Libels, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
• Edward Alexander, The Resonance of Dust, Ohio State
• Benzion Patkin, The Dunera Internees, Benmir Books
• Tadeusz Borowski, Selected Poems, Hit & Run Press
• Reader for History 80W/Mod Soc 80W, available through the Campus Copy Center

• Week 1 Reading: Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz, The Reawakening
• Week 2 Reading: Primo Levi, Moments of Reprieve
• Week 3 Reading: Dan Pagis, Points of Departure
• Week 4 Reading: Nehama Tec, Dry Tears.
• PAPER DUE.
• Week 5 Reading: Aharon Appelfeld, Badenheim, 1939
• Week 6 Reading: Ida Fink, A Scrap of Time
• Week 7 Reading: Janina Bauman, Winter in the Morning
• Week 8 Reading: Ilona Karmel, An Estate of Memory.
• PAPER DUE.
• Week 9 Reading: Primo Levi, If Not Now, When
• Week 10 Reading: Primo Levi, Periodic Table
• FINAL PAPER.

In this course, we examine ways in which the gothic imagination constructs nightmare versions of bourgeois society, revealing cultural anxieties about the family, sexuality, religion, science, and the self, as well as gender, class and racial identities. Readings will include theoretical essays (Freud's "The Ego and the Id," and "'Civilized' Sexual Morality and Modern Nervousness;" and Lacan's "The Mirror Stage"), fictions (THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO, THE MONK, FRANKENSTEIN, CARMILLA, DRACULA, DR, JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, THE TURN OF THE SCREW, THE YELLOW WALLPAPER, MAUS, BELOVED), and films (BLUE VELVET, ALIEN, SWEETIE, SCHINDLER'S LIST).

This course will be taught by distinguished visiting professor John Freccero of New York University, who taught the Dante course during Winter Quarter.

Readings will be among the major novels of Italy's 20th century. Depending on availabilty these may include works by Italo Svevo, Cesare Pavese, Elsa Morante, Natalia Ginzburg, and Italo Calvino.

This course earns TWO units of academic credit. We will meet once a week in the Cowell Senior Common Room. Readings will include THE CLOVEN VISCOUNT, COSMICOMICS, INVISIBLE CITIES, IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER, UNDER THE JAGUAR SUN, and SIX MEMOS FOR THE NEXT MILLENIUM. Emphasis in this course will be on the devlopment of Calvino's postmodern interests over the course of his career, and on his place in Italian and international literature The course will be discussion based (enrollment is limited) and will require the writing of two short (5-6 pp) papers.

For more information, contact Professor Deanna Shemek, shemek@cats.ucsc.edu

Revised 7/13/04.