Afterimage: Film, Trauma, and the Holocaust (Emerging Media: History, Theory, Narrative)

The appearance of Alain Resnais' 1955 French documentary "Night anda Fog" heralded the beginning of a new form of cinema, one that used the narrative techniques of modernism to provoke a new historical consciousness. "Afterimage" presents a theory of posttraumatic film based on the encounter between cinema and the Holocaust. Locating its origin in the vivid shock of wartime footage, " Afterimage" focuses on a group of crucial documentary and fiction films that were pivotal to the spread of this cinematic form across different nations and genres. Joshua Hirsch explores the changes in documentary brought about by cinema verite, culminating in Shoah. He then turns to teh appearance of a fictional posttraumatic cinema, tracing its development through the vivid flashbacks in Resnais'" Hiroshima, mon amour" to the portrayal of pain and memory in" Pawnbroker." He excavates a posttraumatic autobiography in three early films by the Hungarian Istvan Szabo. Finally, Hirsch examines the effects of postmodernism on posttraumatic cinema, looking at "Schindler's List" and a work about a different form of historical trauma, "History and Memory," aa videotape dealing with the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second Worlda War. Sweeping in its scope, "Afterimage" presents a new way of thinking about film and history, trauma and its representation." Argues that cinema has become a significant witness to the Holocaust when it has formally repeated and transmitted the traumatic structure of the experience of witnessing the events themselves. Presents a theory of post-traumatic cinema in two stages. In the first stage, atrocity footage potentially causes vicarious trauma in the audience. In the second stage, certain films adopt a form of narration evocative of post-traumatic memory. Examines documentary and fiction films that made significant contributions to the post-traumatic cinematic discourse of the Holocaust, contrasting them with realist films that tended to deny the traumatic impact of the Holocaust. Resnais's 1955 documentary "Night and Fog" largely originated the post-traumatic narration of history, and influenced later films of this type. Traces the development of the post-traumatic Holocaust documentary, focusing on Lanzmann's "Shoah", and discusses the adoption of post-traumatic narration in fiction films, focusing on the contribution of Lumet's "The Pawnbroker". Views three films written and directed by the Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivor Istvan Szabo in 1966-73 as examples of post-traumatic autobiography. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism) Introduction To Film, Trauma, And The Holocaust -- Night And Fog And The Origins Of Posttraumatic Cinema -- Shoah And The Posttraumatic Documentary After Cinéma Vérité -- The Pawnbroker And The Posttraumatic Flashback -- István Szabó And Posttraumatic Autobiography -- Postmodernism, The Second Generation, And Cross-cultural Posttraumatic Cinema. Joshua Hirsch. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 193-203) And Index.