Literature by design has a complex and often vexed relation to the history from which it emerges and seeks to represent. In the case of the Holocaust, where the accurate representation of historical fact would seem to carry a special moral burden, the problem of imaginative recreation is more acute. And yet, many writers, and a few historians, have argued that literature has an important role to play in our understanding of the events. The lecture will consider these questions through an examination of a range of European, American, and Israeli writers.
Eric J. Sundquist, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, is a member of the Department of English at Johns Hopkins University. A prolific scholar, Professor Sundquist focuses on African-American, Jewish-American, and Holocaust literature. His many publications include the award-winning Strangers in the Land: Blacks, Jews, Post-Holocaust America. During the past several years he has engaged in a rigorous examination of how the Holocaust has been depicted in literature, and findings that stem from this project illuminated his talk on April 19, 2014.
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