Spring 2007

WGS 340 • Women's Narrative of the Holocaust/WWII-W

Course Description

This course is meant to serve as an introduction to the history of both Jewish and of German women during WWII and the Holocaust and to women's narratives and self-representations of this period. The focus in this class is twofold: 1. We will examine the historical role of non-Jewish German and of Jewish women during WWII and the Holocaust from different positions, (bystander, perpetrator, victim, resister, rescuer) through autobiographical texts, film, and historical analyses. 2. We will examine autobiographical texts of these different women as self-representations that attempt to negotiate the different (and shifting) discourses on femininity and masculinity, and the role of women in the public and private sphere available during the war years.

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