ARLT 100g: The Holocaust and The History of Sexuality

Course Info:

Professor Judith HalberstamTHH

Class Time: TTH 930-1050 amOffice Hours: TTH 1-2:30pm (THH 407)

Email: h. 213-821-1169

Course Description

In this class, we will use a range of genres includingfiction, autobiographical writings, film and theoretical essays to explore the fatal intersection of ideologies regarding race, sexuality and nation in Europe in the period leading up to the Holocaust. These readings will allow us to think about what concepts of the body, gender and sexuality paved the way to genocide, trauma and collective atrocity. On account of the dependence of early twentieth century anti-Semitism on toxic ideologies of racial purity and racial superiority, the Nazis were very concerned with the politics and social dynamics of reproduction, desire and perversion. While all the big questions about representation and survival, memory and trauma will concern us here, we will also pay careful attention to more detailed issues about the specific role of gender and sexuality in both persecution and domination. We will also think about the use of certain bodies for medical experimentation and the role of sexuality in Nazi ideologies about normal and pathological bodies. The overall aim of this class is to think about Nazism and the Holocaust in all of their complexity as part of a modern notion of culture, identity, power and violence.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1) 3 Response papers to be handed in over the course of the semester:30%

Each one should react to one of the readings and should be 3 pages long.

I will give you guidelines for these responses.

2) Midterm exam in Wk 9 - focused on readings from Wk 1 to Wk 8 15%

3) One Essay (5pages) which engages in a sustained way with30%

either one of the novels or one of the films we watch.

4) Participation/Attendance in Discussion Sections10 %

5) Final Exam – take-home – written essay15%

*Attendance rules are as follows:

All absences should be explained.

After 4 unexplained absences your grade will be reduced by half a point (an A will be reduced to and A minus, a B + to a B, and A minus to a B + etc).

After 6 absences your grade will be reduced by a full point (an A will be a B, a B+ will be a C+ etc).

After 8 absences, you will have missed a quarter of the class and will be awarded an F.

*Participation means:

coming to class, participating in class discussion, completing all assigned readings in a timely manner, asking questions, participating in a presentation group.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Books

Frank, AnneAnne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, The Definitive Edition (NY:

Bantam, 1997).

Herzog, Dagmar. Sexuality and German Fascism, (Austin, TX: University of Texas

Press, 2002).

Kluger, Ruth. Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered (NY, NY: The Feminist

Press, 2003).

Levi, Neil and Michael Rothberg. The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings. (New

Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2003).

Ofer, Dalia and Lenore J. Weitzman.Women and the Holocaust (New Haven, CT:

Yale University Press, 1999).

Proctor, Robert. Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press, 1988).

Sebald, W.G. Austerlitz (NY and London: Modern Library, 2002).

Films

Night and Fog (Nuit et Bruillard) (1955)directed by Alain Resnais

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) directed by Stanley Kramer

Shoah (selections) (1985) directed by Claude Lanzman

Paragraph 175 (2002) directed by Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein

Schedule

Week One:Introduction to Gender, Sexuality and the

Aug. 24-26Holocaust

Film:Night and Fog, Alan Resnais, 1955

NO CLASS ON THURSDAY – READING DAY

Week Two:A General Theory of Fascism

Aug. 31-Sept. 2

Reading:George L. Mosse, “Toward A General Theory of Fascism”

(BB); The Holocaust:Theoretical Readings – Levi, Ameri, Delbo in Part 1 and Saul Friedlander, Bauman in Part 2.

Film:Clips in class from Triumph of the Will, Night and Fog.

Themes: Politics and aesthetics; fascism and culture; nationalism and sexuality.

MODULE ONE: FASCISM, BODIES, DESIRES

Week Three:Fascism and Gender Part One

Sept. 7-9

Reading:Women in the Holocaust, “Part 1 – Before the War”; The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings – Part 4 “Race, Gender and Genocide”; Claudia Koontz, “Love and Order in the Third Reich” (BB).

Themes:Women and conformity; reproduction and nationalism;

masculinity and militarism.

Week Four:Fascism and Gender Part Two

Sept.14-16

Reading:Women in the Holocaust: Intro by Weitzman and Ofer, Part

2: Life in the Ghettos. The Diary of Anne Frank, The

Definitive Version

Themes:Passing, hiding, imprisonment and identity.

Week Five:Fascism and Sexuality Part One

Sept. 21-23

Reading:Dagmar Herzog, Sexuality and German Fascism: Herzog,

Micheler, Giles.

Film: Desire by Stuart Marshallscreened in classThursday

Themes:Bodies; desires; purity and danger.

*****Sept 23. First Response Paper Due in Class – ON The Diary of A. Frank*****

Week Six:Fascism and Sexuality Part Two

Sept. 28-30

Readings:Dagmar Herzog, Sexuality and German Fascism: Kundrus,

Timm, Gordon, Heineman, Jensen.

Film:Paragraph 175 (Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, 2002, 81 min.)

Themes:Same sex desire and militarism; prostitution;

Week Seven:Eugenics and Euthanasia Part One

Oct. 5-7

Reading:Robert Proctor, Racial Hygiene; Szobar from Sexuality and

German Fascism.

Themes:Science and ideology; sterilization; undesirables.

Special Event: Class Visit from Shoah Foundations Representative

Week Eight:Eugenics and Euthanasia Part Two

Oct. 12-14

Reading:from Doctors of Hell by Vivien Spitz (BB).

Film:Judgment at Nuremberg 1961 screen in class TUESDAY

Themes:Human guinea pigs; medical advancement.

**Oct. 14th Second Response Paper Due In Class – Use Shoah Foundation Material

Week Nine:MIDTERM

Oct. 19-21In Class Exam on October 21

Reading:Continue with Doctors From Hell excerpts (BB).

MODULE TWO:HOLOCAUST: WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Week Ten: Children and The Holocaust

Nov. 2-4

Reading:Ruth Kluger, Still AlivePart 1: Vienna;

W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz.

Film: Into the Arms of Strangers; Au Revoir Les Enfants; Life Is

Beautiful

Themes:Holocaust childhoods; the Kindertransport; lost and found.

Week Eleven:Women in the Camps

Nov. 9-11

Reading:Women and the Holocaust Part 4; Ruth Kluger Part Two:

The Camps; Barbie Zelizer, “Gender and Atrocity: Women

In Holocaust Photographs” (BB); Charlotte Delbo from

Auschwitz and After (BB).

Film:Sections of Shoah;

Themes:Representation and atrocity; gender and death camps.

*********Third Response Paper Due in Class Nov. 9 on Austerlitz.***********

Week Twelve:Trauma/Memory Part One

Nov. 16-18

Reading:The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings Parts 8 and 9

Film:Schindler’s List; Shoah

Themes:Representing the Holocaust;

Week Thirteen:Trauma/Memory Part Two

Nov. 23 (Thanksgiving Nov 25)

Reading:The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings Parts VIII and IX

Film:Schindler’s List; Shoah

Themes:Representing the Holocaust;

***************Long Paper Due in Class Nov. 23**************

Week Fourteen:After Auschwitz

Nov. 30-Dec. 2

Reading:The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings Parts X and XI;

Edward Said from The Question of Palestine.

Film:Waltz With Bashir

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