Adorno famously remarked that after Auschwitz there could be no more poetry. In light of this lacerating insight (often misunderstood and attacked), and in light of transformed "new-century" Eastern European cities like Berlin and Prague in the post-Soviet, post-modern era, disturbing questions can be raised about the changing nature and value of historical consciousness and memory. How does a culture pay homage to a horrific past in an age that makes a commodity of place identity? How should the memory of the past be embodied in everyday life? What happens to the work of artists and writers haunted by the past when experience of the events in question begins to pass out of living memory, even while the events themselves seem to be firmly entrenched in mass culture through seemingly endless and often misleading representations of film and literature?

This interdisciplinary course will blend the methodologies of the historian, the literary theorist, the artist, and the humanely conscious moral person. Students will take a moral and critical journey to Eastern Europe - one never to be forgotten - guided by some of the most insightful texts of the last century that explore the uses of WWII for the purposes of art and construction of received memory. It will be offered in the Spring WEC schedule, and includes a 2-week travel component to important World War II sites in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.

For more information or an application contact: abroad@augsburg.edu