World War Two: Place, Loss, History

A consideration of how the Second World War still goes on today in the form of haunted absences and vivid representations. Studying literature and art in detail, the seminar will center on some of the places where those absences and representations gather: Portbou, Pearl Harbor, Auschwitz, Guadalcanal, London, Berlin, Hamburg, Rome, Omaha Beach, Peleliu, Monte Cassino, Hollywood. Writers and artists include: James Jones, Georges Didi-Huberman, Walter Benjamin, Eduardo Cadava, W.G. Sebald, Rachel Whiteread, Ingeborg Bachman, Wis¿awa Szymborska, Eugene Sledge, Hans Erich Nossack, Jorie Graham, Gerhard Richter, Dani Karavan, Tom Lea, W. Eugene Smith, Val Lewton, and Terrence Malick.