Holocaust Drama
The Holocaust – the systematic attempted destruction of European Jewry and other ‘threats’ to the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945 – has been portrayed in fiction, film, memoirs, and poetry. Gene Plunka's study will add to this chronicle with an examination of the theater of the Holocaust. Including thorough critical analysis of more than thirty plays, this book explores the seminal twentieth-century Holocaust dramas from the United States, Europe, and Israel. Biographical information about the playwrights, production histories of the plays, and pertinent historical information are provided, placing the plays in their historical and cultural contexts
- Provides a thorough overview of the landmark historical and literary events in Holocaust studies
- Includes detailed analyses of over thirty seminal plays, including major and lesser-known dramas
- Places the plays under discussion in their historical and cultural contexts
Reviews & endorsements
"… the volume will be an excellent introductory source for student encounters with Holocaust drama and literary theory … Recommended."
-S. L. Kramer, Kansas State University, Choice
"Plunka needs to congratulated for a passionate in-depth investigation which attempts to do the impossible."
Anselm C. Heinrich, H-German
"… this book is a must-read for any reader interested in "Holocaust drama" in that it begins to categorise the genre in an encyclopaedic manner that is both respectful and thought-provoking. Although this topic might seem to resist further inquiry, it also requires it and this book will hopefully act as an impetus for future researchers, readers and audiences to consider gaps as yet unbridged and voices as yet unheard."
Emily Derbyshire, www.playstosee.com
Product details
February 2011Paperback
9780521182423
454 pages
229 × 152 × 26 mm
0.66kg
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Staging the banality of evil
- 3. Culture and the Holocaust
- 4. The Holocaust as literature of the body
- 5. Transcending the Holocaust
- 6. Marxism and the Holocaust
- 7. Aryan responsibility during the Holocaust, I
- 8. Aryan responsibility during the Holocaust, II
- 9. Heroism and moral responsibility in the ghettoes
- 10. Dignity in the concentration camps
- 11. Holocaust survivors in the United States and Israel
- 12. The survivor syndrome and the effects of the Holocaust on survivor families
- 13. Holocaust survivor memory
- 14. The Holocaust and collective memory
- Bibliography.