The Holocaust - the systematic attempted destruction of European Jewry and other 'threats' to the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945 - has been portrayed in fiction, film, memoirs, and poetry. Gene Plunka's study will add to this chronicle with an examination of the theatre of the Holocaust. Including thorough critical analyses of more than thirty plays, this book explores the seminal twentieth-century Holocaust dramas from the United States, Europe, and Israel. Biographical information about the playwrights, production histories of the plays, and pertinent historical information are provided, placing the plays in their historical and cultural contexts.
• Provides a thorough overview of the landmark historical and literary events in Holocaust studies • Includes detailed analyses of over thirty seminal plays, including major and lesser-known dramas • Places the plays under discussion in their historical and cultural contexts
Contents
1. Introduction; 2. Staging the banality of evil; 3. Culture and the Holocaust; 4. The Holocaust as literature of the body; 5. Transcending the Holocaust; 6. Marxism and the Holocaust; 7. Aryan responsibility during the Holocaust, I; 8. Aryan responsibility during the Holocaust, II; 9. Heroism and moral responsibility in the ghettoes; 10. Dignity in the concentration camps; 11. Holocaust survivors in the United States and Israel; 12. The survivor syndrome and the effects of the Holocaust on survivor families; 13. Holocaust survivor memory; 14. The Holocaust and collective memory; Bibliography.
Review
'This excellent study, which includes an extensive historical introduction and a comprehensive bibliography, acknowledges the difficulties of representing the Holocaust on stage, yet counters them by the need to bear witness to the atrocities as a legacy of the victims … the odd lack of reference to works created after the 1980s do not detract from the importance of this extensive, sensitive and insightful book.' Journal of Theatre Research International
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