Representing and Teaching the Holocaust in the 21st century: Proposals and Enquiries

This article draws on the well-known assumption in Trauma and Holocaust Studies that the representation of traumatic episodes that have affected a huge number of people is usually an aporetic phenomenon. In the case of the Holocaust, the portrayal of these horrible events is always linked to some ethical and historical limits that try to avoid its trivialisation. The first part of this study provides an overview of the evolution of the literary representation of the Holocaust and of the main controversies that have always surrounded the narration of this episode. Then, this evolution will be related to the current „memory boom” and confessional culture that has invaded the cultural panorama, which in the case of the Holocaust has been manifested in the emergence of new hybrid testimonial narratives and the overuse and even commodification of such a traumatic episode. My main contention is that these complex questions have reached the educational context too and thus, the worlds of history, literary criticism and education seem to collide to challenge the future generations’ answers to the Holocaust. All these ideas are finally exposed in a practical exercise that could be carried out in the classroom to discuss whether or not there are textual differences between various testimonial genres, and to figure out how the Holocaust can be kept alive ethically. It will contribute to supporting my closing argument that education has acquired an extremely relevant role within the field of Holocaust Studies, becoming the new site where its meanings and possible representations may be fruitfully negotiated