JWST619J

In this course, we will focus on testimony from a variety of different theoretical perspectives in an attempt to construct a methodology for reading, and thinking about, testimony. Works by Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Benn Michaels, Hayden White, Cathy Caruth, Shoshana Felman, and others will take us through a wide range of orientations and disciplines in our consideration of approaches to testimony. Throughout the semester, students will be responsible for analyzing and presenting audio or video Holocaust testimonies collected from the archives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to the class, as they pertain to the theoretical materials on testimony we will be reading. Students will have the opportunity to test the resilience and the limits of testimonial discourse generated within the context of the Holocaust.