Undergraduate Course: Visual Representations of the Holocaust and Religion (REST10033)
Course Outline
| School | School of Divinity |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | A survey of visual representations of the Holocaust in art, museums and film. These representations will be analysed with methods in Religious and Cultural Studies. Students will be introduced to artworks beginning with such iconic images as Chagall's crucifixion series. Secondly, students will discuss the representation of the Holocaust in museums, focusing on exhibitions in Britain such as the Imperial War Museum Holocaust Exhibition. Thirdly, students will analyse filmic representations of the Holocaust ranging from documentaries such as Alain Resnais' Night and Fog to more recent productions such as Paul Verhoeven's Black Book and Stefn Ruzowitzky's The Counterfeiters. An analytic thread through this diverse material will be the identification of religious motifs and inscriptions of Jewishness. |
| Course description |
Academic Description:
This honours course will allow students to approach the field of Holocaust Studies with current Religious Studies methods. Students will be introduced to aspects of Visual and Material Culture Studies and its bearing on Religious Studies. In the last twenty years research on the visual representation of the Holocaust in art, film and museum has flourished, now being situated at the cutting edge of Holocaust Studies. The category 'religion' does not occupy an explicit or prominent place, yet is detectable in many of the representations offered. As such, this is an exciting and still emerging field for Religious Studies to engage in.
Syllabus/Outline Content:
The aim in this course is to chart a history of visual engagements with the Holocaust in a variety of media and to give students the opportunity to apply methods of Cultural and Religious Studies in their analysis. Students will engage with case studies such as Marc Chagall's White Crucifixion, Holocaust memorials and museums in Germany, the US and UK, cartoons such as Art Spiegelman's Maus, and films such as Night and Fog, Shoah, Life is Beautiful and God on Trial. An analytic thread through this diverse material will be the identification of religious motifs and inscriptions of Jewishness.
Student Learning Experience Information:
The course consists of a two hour weekly seminar taught as a 'flipped classroom'. In the first hour students will engage in a discussion of the source text(s) for the week. To prepare students write a discussion paper for each week. The paper consists of a source analysis of set primary sources and forms the basis for class discussion. The discussion paper is a key part of the formative and summative assessment in this course. The second hour of the seminar will take the form of a lecture to prepare students with an overview of issues relevant to the following week's source text. A class essay and a final exam test the learning outcomes for this course.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Divinity/Religious Studies courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge of major themes and works in the visual representation of the Holocaust in art, museum and film, and summarise key interpretive concepts in the theory of representation.
- Be able to apply methods of Religious and Cultural Studies to the analysis of visual representations of the Holocaust.
- Critically assess the function of religious motifs and inscriptions of Jewishness in visual representations of the Holocaust.
- Sensitively explore the religious, cultural and national contexts of production of visual representations of the Holocaust.
- Demonstrate an ability to identify key terms and their meanings, and show good judgment about how to judge the relative importance of items on course bibliographies.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | VisRep |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Hannah Holtschneider
Tel: (0131 6)50 8933
Email: H.Holtschneider@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Katrina Munro
Tel: (0131 6)50 8900
Email: Kate.Munro@ed.ac.uk |
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