Holocaust film : the political aesthetics of ideology

"What Norman Finkelstein has done in exposing the political foregrounding of the Holocaust Industry, what Giorgio Agamben has done in extrapolating the contemporary implications of homo sacer from the horrors of the concentration camps, Terri Ginsberg is doing with astonishing command and competence about Holocaust cinema. Ginsberg s voice is clear, concise, liberating, and the harbinger of an entire new generation of scholarship in cinema studies. Groundbreaking, challenging, judicious, theoretically ambitious, and analytically lucid, Holocaust Film: The Political Aesthetics of Ideology begins from the ground zero of the unspeakable and works its way meticulously up towards the long shot of a take that will remain definitive to generations of scholarship it anticipates." -- Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University;Editor, Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema "Terri Ginsberg's Holocaust Film: The Political Aesthetics of Ideology is a much needed intervention in the field of Holocaust Studies in general and in Holocaust Cinema Studies in particular. What Ginsberg has fashioned is a reading of the Holocaust that is both immanent and materialist and much needed in these times when Holocaust scholarship is being shanghaighed by both ends of the political spectrum. It is Ginsberg's achievement that Holocaust cinematic texts are here restored to their historical moment in a way that must be accomplished if there is ever to be an understanding of how these texts might grasp the original moment of the tragedy. Her painstakingly thorough scholarship and theoretical rigor ensures that her work at least will not serve to promote the type of easy, knee-jerk response that simply adds flame to the fire and in the name of scholarship contributes to the perpetuation of other tragedies in the present Israeli-Palestinian situation."-- Dennis Broe, Graduate Program Coordinator, Media Arts Department, Long Island University "Ginsberg ably demonstrates how the subgenre known as Holocaust cinema has been co-opted by the culture industry. Bypassing the usual Hollywood touchstones, she focuses on four relatively neglected films that illuminate several key motifs that permeate many films on the subject: the 'Christianization' of Jewish oppression, the commodification of genocide by both commercial and art house cinema, and the ethnocentric appropriation of the Holocaust by filmmakers with reactionary agendas. Eschewing the conformist platitudes of previous studies, Ginsberg s book is a salutary and necessary provocation." -- Richard Porton, Co-editor, Cineaste ; Author, Film and the Anarchist Imagination "Hollywood has produced more than 175 films on the Holocaust since the1980s, and in fact by now the category is considered by some toconstitute a virtual genre. Ginsberg challenges the under-examinedstatus of these films and analyzes the work they perform to construct arevisionist discourse. Ginsberg's astute understanding of cinematicstrategies in addition to her confidence in distilling and unpackingeven the most fraught of ideological discourses promise a groundbreaking and eminently useful study. Hers are important contributions which wevery much need." B. Ruby Rich, University of California-Santa Cruz;Author, Chick Flicks: Theories and Memories of the Feminist Movement "The importance of the Holocaust is beyond doubt. The importance ofcontinuing the analysis and wide-ranging discussion of it is, at leastin some circles. Here, in response, is an extremely scholarly andinsightful treatment of Holocaust films and the aesthetic ideology thatinforms them. Sheds much light on several controversial problemsconnected to these horrific events. Highly Recommended." Bertell Ollman, New York University; Author, Dance of the Dialectic This timely new monograph takes as its starting point the provocative contention that Holocaust film scholarship has been marginalized academically despite the crucial role Holocaust film has played in fostering international awareness of the Nazi genocide and scholarly understandings of cinematic power. The book suggests political and economic motivations for this seeming paradox, the ideological parameters of which are evident in debates and controversies over Holocaust films themselves, and around Holocaust culture in general. Lending particular attention to four exemplary Holocaust “art” films (Korczak [Poland, 1990], The Quarrel [Canada, 1990], Entre Nous [France, 1983], and Balagan [Germany, 1994]), this book breaks disciplinary ground by drawing critical connections between public and scholarly debates over Holocaust representation, and the often sophisticated cinematic structures lending aesthetic shape to them in today's global arena.

This timely monograph contends that Holocaust film scholarship has been marginalized academically despite the crucial role Holocaust film has played in fostering global awareness and scholarly understandings of cinematic power. The book suggests political and economic motivations are responsible, for this seeming paradox, the parameters of which are evident in debates and controversies over Holocaust films themselves and around Holocaust culture in general. Lending particular attention to four films- Entre Nous (1982), Korczak (1990), The Quarrel (1991), and Balagan (2004)-this volume breaks disciplinary ground by drawing critical connections between public and scholarly debates over Holocaust representation and the sophisticated cinematic structures lending them aesthetic shape in today's global arena.

Towards a critique of Holocaust cinematic culture St. Korczak, martyr of Poland The Quarrel in/over Québec Entre nous and the erotics of historical erasure Holocaust "identity" and the Israeli/Palestinian Balagan Holocaust Y2K : a polemical conclusion. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF IMAGES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX