Page 58 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana w Łodzi. Time of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Film images.

2 — opinions on conventional realism being inappropriate
Robert Braun, The Holocaust and when speaking about the Holocaust can be heard today.
the Problem of Representation,
„History and Theory” 1994, vol.33, The words of Robert Braun, who paraphrased Adorno’s
no.2, p. 174. Also see: Ewa famous thesis on the impossibility of writing poetry after
Domańska, introduction to the Holocaust, and concluded that it is possible to write
the anthology „Pamięć, etyka
i historia. Anglo-amerykańska poetry after Auschwitz, but in is not possible to describe
teoria historiografii lat dziewięć- the historical past in the convention of realistic narrative ,
2
dziesiatych”, Ewa Domańska are characteristic in this context. Classical realism with
(editor), Poznań 2006, p. 18
its narrative logic, clarity of view on history and confi-
3 — dence in its judgements, is incapable of picturing, even
Hayden White, The Modernist roughly, the crisis which the industrial killing of Jews by
Event, translated into Polish
by Maciej Nowak [in:] Hayden the Nazis caused in history. That problem was depicted
White. Proza historyczna, ed. in a similar way by Hayden White, who called it a mod-
Ewa Domańska, Kraków 2009, ernist event, i.e. one that exceeds former experiences
pp. 289-313.
and description methods applied to them . In lieu of re-
3
4 — alistic narrative, Hayden proposed the use of experimen-
See: Andreas Huyssen, tal narrative techniques of Modernistic Novel, which
The Politics of Identification:
‘Holocaust’ and Wets German allow the reader to experience the radical alienation re-
Drama. „New German Critique” lated to the Holocaust already on the level of language,
1980, no. 19(1), p. 17-36
in the very method of picturing its history. That alien-
5 — ation should actually be understood in the ‘Brechtian
With regard to the Schindler’s List sense’, as a representation which does not allow a pas-
Miriam Bratu Hansen emphasizes sive internalization and inclusion in the literary cause
the shock which the film had
created in the public despite the and effect sequence, but instead forces the audience
opinions of academic critique. That to take a position and confront the traumatic dimension
shock triggered a wide debate on of the Holocaust.
the politics of remembrance and
strategy of representation. Hansen The argumentation of Andreas Huyssen is sympto-
points out that the opponents matic for the opponents of formal experiments in Holo-
of realistic representation of the caust-themed films. In his opinion, modernist narratives
Holocaust in Spielberg’s film have
omitted a deeper analysis of the are too intellectual for the cultural needs of the mass
narrative and negated the film audience, constituting a communication barrier which
almost a priori only because of its hinders any emotional engagement and identification
Hollywood connections and
realistic representation codes. Her of the viewer with an individual Jewish character, which
own analysis, however, reveals Huyssen considers essential for internalization of the
a subtle elliptic form and Holocaust remembrance. According to Huyssen, any
self-reflexiveness of Schindler’s
List, associated with modernist critic of the Holocaust TV series and other films based
cinema rather than realistic feature on the classic convention of cinema is a result of aes-
films. Additionally, Hansen draws thetic preferences and does not reflect deeper on the
our attention to the dynamics
of reception; Spielberg’s film (and consequences and limitations of individual representa-
4
other realistic films) can provoke tion models . Huyssen discredits the critics of realistic
different methods of reception representations of the Holocaust suggesting that their
depending on cultural and
historical context, as well as sympathies are of aesthetical nature and result from
activate meanings which exceed their cinephilic evaluation of film forms and not from
beyond those suggested by the their reflection on the ethics of Holocaust representa-
form or the author’s intention. See:
5
Miriam Bratu Hansen, op. cit. tions . He forgets, however, that the authors of the real-
56 Bartosz Zając