Date: 2010
Type: Thesis
The Holocaust in German and Polish cinema after 1989 and European processes of remembrance
Florence : European University Institute, 2010, EUI, HEC, PhD Thesis
PAKIER, Malgorzata, The Holocaust in German and Polish cinema after 1989 and European processes of remembrance, Florence : European University Institute, 2010, EUI, HEC, PhD Thesis - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/14488
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
The dissertation examines the role of German and Polish feature films in the Europeanization of the construction of the Holocaust memory. The role of the global media representations in providing foundations for a 'transnational Holocaust memory' was highlighted by Natan Sznaider and Daniel Levy (2002; 2006). However, while the authors of Erinnerung im Globalen Zeitalter concentrated on the international resonance of such Holocaust representations as Steven Spielberg‘s 'Schindler‘s List', my aim is to view the Holocaust films selected here primarily from the perspective of the nationally specific historical debates to which they relate. Employing a comparative perspective, I hope to show a dynamic picture of the role of cinema in current public processes of remembrance in Europe, and examine the ways in which different visions of national and European past clash or interact. The conceptual framework of the dissertation is located at the crossroad of the following areas of intellectual debate: the question of possibility of representing the Holocaust in film and other media; the concept of collective memory and the discussion about film as a legitimate media for historical discourse; historical and public confrontation with World War II and the Holocaust in Germany and Poland since 1945, especially after 1989; finally, the debate about a European identity and the place of the Holocaust within it.
Additional information:
Defence date: 29 January 2010; Examining Board: Prof. Bo Stråth, Supervisor (EUI, University of Helsinki); Prof. Philipp Ther (EUI); Prof. Wlodzimierz Borodziej (Warsaw University); Prof. Frank Stern (Vienna University); PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/14488
Series/Number: EUI; HEC; PhD Thesis
Publisher: European University Institute
LC Subject Heading: Holocaust memorials -- Germany; Holocaust memorials -- Poland; Memory -- Social aspects; Motion pictures -- Holocaust memorials -- Germany; Motion pictures -- Holocaust memorials -- Poland