Perceptions of self are profoundly affected when the mind experiences trauma or loss evoked by violence or pain. Self-perception continues to be greatly impacted by memories of the trauma. Manifestations of these experiences through art - into physical corporeal forms become sublimational for the artist and engage the viewer as a voyeur of personal, intimate, and sometimes disturbing moments. Many artists use past traumas to evoke a psychological response in the viewer. Monika Weiss’s work, specifically Lament II (three part video) for example, recalls memories of World War II to remind the viewer of the atrocities that happened in Europe. Viewers may not have a direct connection to the Holocaust, but the work calls on the viewer to remember a past that many wish to ignore. Her work speaks to notions of trauma, mourning, and loss, but also of the perception of past events and the collective memory of communities where these events have taken place, as well as individual memory. Large scale events like this can mark not only the individuals present, but future generations continue to be impacted, culturally and individually. The chaotic scrambling of thought and imagery, seen in the work of artists who take on notions of trauma, point to the mind’s desperate attempt to reorganize and make sense of experience through memory and healing. Retaining memory …show more content…
As time passes, memories fade and change; Cunningham’s videos elucidate this phenomenon. The viewer’s response is linked to his or her perception based on their memories. The viewer watching her videos is implicated as voyeur, which can also elicit different emotions. Sublimation on the other hand, comes from the making of the work and is more difficult to perceive as a viewer, but can explain why some artists make the work they
Mark Baker’s ‘The Fiftieth Gate’ creates a struggle between memory and history as each represents the Holocaust but through different means of representation. The language of memory is partial, subjective, and emotional and experiences confusion and doubts. Baker provides the historical facts of the Aktions and slave-labour camps in historian terms, that of numbers of deaths, survivors and prisoners, and is criticised by his parents. “Fecks, fecks” Joe says dismissively and Genia describes his work as “shopping lists”. This demonstrates how Baker believed his parents’ pasts were represented through history, and Joe and Genia felt their experiences were represen...
Imagine being trapped in a ghetto, seeing communities leaving in trains, families being split up, never to see each other again.. The emotions that each and every Holocaust survivor must’ve gone through is overwhelming. Some things that are taken for granted, will never be seen again. While reading the two texts, Night by Elie Wiesel and “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” by Pavel Friedman, The two predominant emotions that prevailed most to Holocaust victims and survivors were hope and fear.
By 1945 over 6 million Jews were killed as a result of the genocide launched by Nazi Germany. The Holocaust has been documented and depicted by various visual images revealing the atrocities of this tragic period. The film posters of Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful produced in 1997 and Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List produced in 1993 utilize various rhetorical appeals to present starkly different visual arguments about the Holocaust. For the purpose of this rhetorical analysis, viewing these images from the standpoint of a viewer who is exposed to these posters for the first time, with the acute knowledge that these posters are related to the holocaust is necessary. From this standpoint, it is clear to see how images that depict that
Most historical events, whether beneficial or detrimental to society, bear witnesses. Regardless of how many total were affected by the event, each person owns a personal account of what they endured during the event. Elie Wiesel, author of Night, expresses the personal account of Elizer, a Jewish teenager, who fought to stay alive during the holocaust, and shows the importance of witness accounts, the will to survive, and the remembrance of past historical events. Night encompasses the idea of “Literature of Witness” by simultaneously showing how millions of people were affected by the holocaust and how each person, principally Elizer, has their own personal story to tell to understand and remember that horrendous time.
This book was also one of my first encounters with an important truth of art: that your work is powerful not because you convey a new emotion to the audience, but because you tap into an emotion the audience already feels but can't express.
By means of comic illustration and parody, Art Spiegelman wrote a graphic novel about the lives of his parents, Vladek and Anja, before and during the Holocaust. Spiegelman’s Maus Volumes I and II delves into the emotional struggle he faced as a result of his father’s failure to recover from the trauma he suffered during the Holocaust. In the novel, Vladek’s inability to cope with the horrors he faced while imprisoned, along with his wife’s tragic death, causes him to become emotionally detached from his son, Art. Consequently, Vladek hinders Art’s emotional growth. However, Art overcomes the emotional trauma his father instilled in him through his writing.
Both the book, Night, by Elie Wiesel and the graphic novels, Maus I, II, by Art Spiegelman depict the Holocaust. In Night, the scenes of the Holocaust are depicted through words and in Maus I, II they are depicted through illustration. They both display the powerful message of the Holocaust, but in two different forms. In each book, the media that is used helps define the story that is being told. Both medias are strong because they are able to tell the story of the Holocaust, but sometimes the message is more noticeable or powerful when used in a different form. Each story is able to emphasize different points through the use of different types of imagery.
Many different responses have occurred to readers after their perusal of this novel. Those that doubt the stories of the holocaust’s reality see Night as lies and propaganda designed to further the myth of the holocaust. Yet, for those people believing in the reality, the feelings proffered by the book are quite different. Many feel outrage at the extent of human maliciousness towards other humans. Others experience pity for the loss of family, friends, and self that is felt by the Holocaust victims.
The Holocaust was a very impressionable period of time. It not only got media attention during that time, but movies, books, websites, and other forms of media still remember the Holocaust. In Richard Brietman’s article, “Lasting Effects of the Holocaust,” he reviews two books and one movie that were created to reflect the Holocaust (BREITMAN 11). He notes that the two books are very realistic and give historical facts and references to display the evils that were happening in concentration camps during the Holocaust. This shows that the atrocities that were committed during the Holocaust have not been forgotten. Through historical writings and records, the harshness and evil that created the Holocaust will live through centuries, so that it may not be repeated again (BREITMAN 14).
The Holocaust is considered the largest genocide of our entire world, killing more than 600,000,000 Jewish people during the years of 1933-1945. The memories and history that have filled our lives that occurred during the Holocaust are constantly remembered around the world. Many populations today “think” that constant reminders allow for us to become informed and help diminish the hatred for other races still today. These scholars believe that by remembering the Holocaust, you are able to become knowledgeable and learn how to help prevent this from happening again. Since the Holocaust in a sense impacted the entire human race and history of the world, there are traces of the Holocaust all across our culture today. As I continue to remember the victims of this tragic time period I think of all the ways that our world remembers the Holocaust in today’s society. Through spreading the word, works of media and memorials across the world, I am continually reminded of the tragedy that occurred.
For many years, people time and time again denied the happenings of the Holocaust or partially understood what was happening. Even in today’s world, when one hears the word ‘Holocaust’, they immediately picture the Nazi’s persecution upon millions of innocent Jews, but this is not entirely correct. This is because Jews
The second stage of memory processing is storage. Aronson et al. (2013) defines storage as the process by which people store the information they just acquired. Unfortunately, memories are affected by incoming information through alteration or reconstruction. This phenomenon is referred to as recon...
Expressing horrific events is painful for authors, but the unspeakable, such as the holocaust needs to be displayed to show the inhumane ways people are treated. Authors have trouble conveying these events on paper and struggle to communicate with us, however, need to display these events in order to express what has happened to a large group of people in society. The holocaust is a specific example of why the unspeakable needs to be shown. The holocaust is one of the worst events in history and caused many deaths to a religious group. In order to make sure no race or religion ever is discriminated such as this, the holocaust has to be understood. Conveying the unspeakable is possible through repetition for emphasis, inadequate language to
Using lines and basic shapes to emphasize shading and detail and then teamed with such a complex theme, Art’s story and graphics join together in a complimentary marriage. With the nearly childlike drawings and the intense mature storyline, there is a message that this is being written by the child telling the story of the parent. The story emphasizes his father’s inability to grow and repair from his past but even without the words you can almost see that Art has never truly be able to move past his the trauma of growing up with his parents. Using his frustrations and the need to explore the history of his father’s idiosyncrasies, Art creates a poignant story not only about the tragedy of the holocaust, but of the realities of being a child growing up with survivor parents.
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (25 December 1911 – 31 May 2010) was a French-American sculptor best known for her large scale sculptures and installations which dealt with autobiographical themes ranging from sexuality to family domesticity. Bourgeois was also an avid painter and printmaker that, like her three-dimensional work, was abstract expressionist in nature and dealt with similar themes of sexuality and family domesticity. As her work is autobiographical, there is a sense of abjection in many of her works due to tension and conflict between her father, who she resented, and the rest of her family. Julia Kristeva, a French philosopher born in 1941, addresses abjection in “Approaching Abjection” which builds off of Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis. Paternal abjection is evident in The Destruction of the Father, and key elements in Kristeva’s writing can aid in fathoming what the abject is and how it is present in Bourgeois’ work.