The Complete Lives Of Camp People: Colonialism, Fascism, Concentrated Modernity (theory In Forms)

In The Complete Lives of Camp People Rudolf Mrázek presents a sweeping study of the material and cultural lives of twentieth-century concentration camp internees and the multiple ways in which their experiences speak to the fundamental logics of modernity. Mrázek focuses on the minutiae of daily life in two camps: Theresienstadt, a Nazi “ghetto” for Jews near Prague, and the Dutch “isolation camp” Boven Digoel—which was located in a remote part of New Guinea between 1927 and 1943 and held Indonesian rebels who attempted to overthrow the colonial government. Drawing on a mix of interviews with survivors and their descendants, archival accounts, ephemera, and media representations, Mrázek shows how modern life's most mundane tasks—buying clothes, getting haircuts, playing sports—continued on in the camps, which were themselves designed, built, and managed in accordance with modernity's tenets. In this way, Mrázek demonstrates that concentration camps are not exceptional spaces; they are the locus of modernity in its most distilled form. "'The complete lives of camp people' brings together a study of the infamous Dutch colonial camp for political prisoners, Boven Digoel, located in an isolated part of New Guinea, with a consideration of the Nazi work camp Theresienstadt. Through a focus on the minutiae of daily life in these camps, Rudolf Mrázek shows how the world of the twentieth century became the world of the camps. The project isn't comparative, nor is it an attempt to explain the specific structure or nature of these camps; rather, Mrázek focuses on the lives that were lived in Boven Digoel and Theresienstadt, elaborating in detail the events of life that were made modern through the form of a twentieth-century camp. While both were places of unspeakable violence, neither was officially a 'death camp.' In fact, Mrázek argues, not only did life continue in these camps, it became concentrated, reduced, and intensified. Through juxtapositions of interviews with survivors and their descendants, written recollections, archival accounts, ephemera, and media representations, Mrázek is able to provide incredibly detailed accounts of how the banalities of life as we continue to know it--newspapers, haircuts, concert tickets, neighborhoods--were reproduced in the two camps."-- Provided by publisher Cover Contents Introduction PART I. FASHION 1. Clothes 2. Beauty Spots 3. Pink Bodies 4. Sport PART II. SOUND 5. Noise 6. Voice 7. Music 8. Radio PART III. LIGHT 9. Clearing 10. Enlightenment 11. Limelight PART IV. CITY 12. Blocks 13. Streets 14. Suburbs PART V. SCATTERING 15. Nausea 16. Escape 17. Dust, or Memory Notes Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z