FRS 002 — Sec. 013 — (2 units) — CRN 53601 — R 4:10-6:00 pm — 203 Wellman
Nazi Perpetrators in Holocaust Cinema

Instructor: Jaimey Fisher, Department of German and Russian, College of Letters & Science

Description: This seminar will help students improve their writing by teaching them to write about films and their reactions to films. It introduces students to film analysis, theories, and writing by focusing on an important topic within a well-known genre, that is, the representation of the perpetrators in recent films about the Holocaust. Many critics have analyzed the depiction of victims and bystanders in Holocaust cinema, but not nearly as much attention has been paid to how the (primarily Nazi) perpetrators are portrayed, which is surprising given the tenacious persistence of the question “Why did the Nazis do it?” Writing will be an integral part of this course because learning to think and write critically about images and media is crucial to living in our culture. The goals for student learning are basically two-fold: first, in terms of the course’s content, to address one of the most fundamental and recurring questions in our field, namely, why did the Nazis do it? This course will investigate how authors and filmmakers have engaged this question and address how one can most productively understand and depict the most nefarious criminals in history. Second, we aim to develop writing skills, particularly as they relate to writing critically about images and especially moving images. This objective will entail familiarizing the students with the practice of writing about films in a critical mode as well as familiarizing them with writing film criticism in concert with other texts, including culture, historical, as well as other images.

Format: The seminar will meet for two hours each week for ten weeks. Students and instructor will discuss the assigned film each week. The materials of the course will similarly be two-fold: content relating to Holocaust cinema as well as to critical writing. In terms of the films, we shall begin with the hegemonic Holocaust film, Schindler’s List, but much of the rest of the course will be directed at critiquing its representation of an unstable, monster-like Nazi perpetrator. Other films will include The Pianist, Amen (Der Stellverteter), and The Ninth Day. We would spend two weeks each on these five (total) texts. Besides the out-of-class reading and film viewing (which seem quite modest), students will be required to complete a variety of different writing assignments relating to the materials. Students will write two short papers (2-3 pages each) on suggested topics. Student may also choose their own topics in consultation with the instructor. Grading: Since the class is to be a seminar, participation, both offering comments and listening carefully to others, will comprise a large part of the final grade (30%). Participation will also entail in-class writing and peer-editing assignments. Also important in seminars are oral presentations, one of which each student will offer during the course of the semester (30%). Finally, in addition to in-class exercises, two short papers (each 2-3 pages) will be required and constitute the remainder of the final grade (40%).

About the Instructor: Prof. Fisher has been teaching at UC Davis, in the Departments of German and Russian as well as in Film Studies, since July 2004. He has considerable experience teaching writing, as he has taught over eight such seminars in his time at Cornell and Tulane Universities. His research and teaching interests include film studies, especially German cinema, literature, and intellectual history. His current project concerns contemporary German cinema within a European and global context. He has published articles on German and Italian cinema, German literature, and philosophy and has co-edited the book Critical Theory: Current State and Future Prospects.