Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies

Symposium
The Holocaust: Literature and Representation
May 24, 2001

10–10:30 a.m.
Opening Remarks

Introductory Comments—Paul A. Shapiro, Director, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The Methodological Value of Fiction for Approaching Memory of the Holocaust—Geoffrey H. Hartman, Sterling Professor (Emeritus) of English and Comparative Literature, and Project Director, Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University, New Haven

10:30 a.m.–noon
Session I: Bearing Witness through Literature

Nostalgia, Home, and Exile in Contemporary Representations of the Holocaust—Sara R. Horowitz, Associate Professor of English, Division of Humanities, and Associate Director, Centre for Jewish Studies, York University, Toronto, Ontario

"Holocaust" and "War" as Paradigms in Israeli Literature and Culture—Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Institute of Contemporary Jewry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Commentary—James E. Young, Professor of English and Judaic Studies, and Chair, Judaic Studies Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Noon–1 p.m.
Break

1–3 p.m.
Session II: Transmission and Reception

Imagining Cultural Genocide since 1948: The Story of How Texts Become Persons—Amy Hungerford, Assistant Professor of English and American Studies, Yale University, New Haven

The Aesthetic of Complicity and the American Literary Response to the Holocaust—R. Clifton Spargo, Assistant Professor of English, Marquette University, Milwaukee, and 2000–2001 Pearl Resnick Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies

Representing the Holocaust in Postcolonial Narrative—Michael Rothberg, Assistant Professor of English, University of Miami, Florida

Commentary—Alvin H. Rosenfeld, Professor of English, and Director, Borns Jewish Studies Program, Indiana University, Bloomington

3–5 p.m.
Session III: Trauma, Testimony and Holocaust Literature

Death in Language: From Mado’s Mourning to the Act of Writing—Petra Schweitzer, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Comparative Literature, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

"And in the Distance You Hear Music, a Band Playing": Reflections on Chaos and Order in Literature and Testimony—Sidney M. Bolkosky, William E. Stirton Professor in the Social Sciences, University of Michigan-Dearborn

A Voice in Conflict: Primo Levi and Poetic Silence—Jonathan M. Alexander, Lecturer in Holocaust Literature, Burlington County College, Pemberton, New Jersey

Commentary—Lawrence L. Langer, Alumnae Chair Professor of English (Emeritus), Simmons College, Boston