The End of Poetry? Narrating Trauma after World War II

Seventy years after the end of World War II, the trauma of the Holocaust and of the war is still inscribed into the collective memory, thus assuming an essential cultural position within Western knowledge. Long after Adorno drastically claimed that “to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric” (Prisms 34), discussions continue on whether the Holocaust and the horrors of the war can be appropriately negotiated through literature, whether they should be depicted at all, and to what genre and form this literary depiction should adhere. Over the years, U.S. American literature dealing with the collective trauma of World War II has become increasingly varied and abundant, as authors of different generations struggle to express what has been rendered the “unspeakable.”

In this course we want to study and discuss the different ways in which American postmodern literature has approached individual and collective traumas created by the events of World War II. In attending this subject, we will alternate our attention between critical, theoretical work and primary literary texts. Course readings will include texts by Kurt Vonnegut, Art Spiegelman, Nicole Krauss, Jonathan Safran Foer and others.