Module description
Over the past eighty years writers and film-makers have pushed new aesthetic boundaries in their representations of two major genocides of the twentieth century – the Holocaust and the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Separated by fifty years and occurring on different continents, we will consider both common representative strategies and points of radical divergence.
Literature and film have key roles to play in bearing witness to the crime of genocide and in stressing the nuances and complexities of individual identity in the face of homogenising violence. Art also plays a role in reconciliation and in exploring the aftermath of massive suffering.
We will begin the term with a range of classic Holocaust films, memoirs and collected testimony, alongside theoretical insights into strategies for witnessing abuses of human rights. In the second half of the course we will turn our attention to Rwanda, examining how writers and film-makers responding to that genocide draw on aesthetic strategies that can be traced back to Holocaust literature but also create very different narratives.
We will pay particular attention to places of memory – memorials and sites of massacre – that will help us to draw further links between both genocides. We also discuss what it means to listen to and receive testimony, and the emotional charge of this kind of work. We pay attention to our varied individual styles of witnessing, whilst also building analytical skills to help us understand how and why testimony affects our world today.
This course will appeal to students interested in Holocaust Studies, African literature, Memory Studies and Human Rights. Some of the set readings are grounded in languages other than English (Italian, Yiddish, French, Kinyarwanda) but all are available in translation. No prior knowledge of the Holocaust or African literature is required.
Assessment details
1 x 4000 word essay
Educational aims & objectives
This course is run as two-hour seminars. We build trust within the group and usually begin each session by sharing our responses to the primary texts. We also have student presentations designed to help you question and extend existing scholarship. We then move between group discussions of broader issues and close readings to help us understand the architecture and nuances of the texts.
You will gain knowledge about cultural responses to these two genocides and practice working with emotions as a starting point for academic analysis. In particular you will:
- Engage with texts relating to the Holocaust and genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda
- Gain a broad understanding of how the texts we study align with wider movements
- Demonstrate awareness of a range of issues relating to the study of genocide including transitional justice
- Gain in-depth knowledge about artistic strategies for representing genocide
- Debate, compare and develop insights from theory (particularly memory studies)
- Learn about how to develop your own arguments when comparing texts across genocides and genres
- Develop skills in communicating your own academic insights through oral presentations, discussions and essay preparations
Teaching pattern
1 x 2 hour seminar, weekly
Suggested reading list
To prepare for this course you may wish to read:
- Primo Levi, If This is a Man
- Yaffa Eliach, Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust
- Yolande Mukagasana, Not My Time to Die
- Phillip Gourevitch, We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families
A PDF of the current KEATS page to give you an indication of likely secondary reading can be viewed here for reference only.