Modernity and Genocide

Module Leader:
György Greskovits
Year/Term:
2015-2016 Autumn
Level:
Focus
Division:
Arts and Humanities
Credit:
8

The module will aim to survey the historiography of the Holocaust and provide students with insights regarding the range of interpretive frameworks available to understand the occurrence. A major element of these explanations draws attention to the importance of modernity (technological advancement, the rise of social engineering and a Darwinian conception of society) in the unfolding of mass murder and in particular its execution. Through the module students will grapple with one of the toughest challenges of historical writing, and gain a detailed understanding of how historians have attempted to explain and represent genocide. The course will also briefly look at artistic and philosophical perspectives as well as commemoration and cinema.

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