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14 - The Holocaust and the Challenges of Representation

from Part III - Culture and Ideas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2025

By
Michael Rothberg
Edited by
Laura Jockusch  and
Devin O. Pendas
Laura Jockusch
Affiliation:
Brandeis University, Massachusetts
Devin O. Pendas
Affiliation:
Boston College
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Summary

In the 1990s, the challenges of representing the (perhaps, arguably) unrepresentable horror of the Holocaust were hotly debated. The issue still poses crucial theoretical questions that have animated a wide array of both scholarly and aesthetic responses. One might think, for instance, of the very different representational strategies adopted by Claude Lanzmann in Shoah and Steven Spielberg in Schindler’s List as marking two ends of the spectrum on how to represent the Holocaust. This chapter articulates the theoretical terrain upon which Holocaust representation unfolds and, in this respect, serves as a theoretical companion to the topic-specific culture chapters that follow.

Keywords

HolocaustMemoryLiteraturePoetryArtTheodor AdornoHayden WhiteSaul FriedländerSchindler’s ListClaude Lanzmann
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Holocaust , pp. 332 - 352
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

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