Of Horror and Glamour: Representations of the Holocaust in the US and Germany

On April 8, 2021, Deutsches Haus at NYU and the Consulate General of Germany New York presented a moderated panel discussion among Angelika Bammer, Andrew Gross, Susanne Rohr, Cornelius Schwalm, and James Young in the context of the recent publication of Susanne Rohr’s new book, Von Grauen und Glamour: Repräsentationen des Holocaust in den USA und Deutschland [Of Horror and Glamour: Representations of the Holocaust in the U.S. and Germany] (Winter Verlag, 2021). Opening remarks were provided by Yasemin Pamuk, Head of Cultural Affairs and Science at the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York.

Can we laugh about the Holocaust? Have we exhausted the conversation? These provocative questions were at the heart of the concentration camp comedies of the 90s, which were breaking taboos of Holocaust representation. How is the Holocaust represented in contemporary artworks after this so-called ultimate breach of taboo? Susanne Rohr’s study analyzes the developments of these representations in the U.S. and Germany in a comparative approach. Von Grauen und Glamour [Of Horror and Glamour] traces the cultural narratives in which these novels, novellas, movies, and graphic novels are integrated, and in which transatlantic dialogues they stand. Their analysis shows how they relate to generational debates on memory and memorialization, and how they adjoin questions of ethics with those of aesthetic. For the first time in a transnational context, this book shows the continuing necessity and ongoing dynamics of memory work.

Видео Of Horror and Glamour: Representations of the Holocaust in the US and Germany канала Deutsches Haus