Incorporation of the Holocaust Experience into the American Conceptual Framework

Mgr. Kateřina Černá

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Tato práce pojednává o vztahu mezi poválečnou americkou kinematografii a celkovou kulturní a politickou situací v Americe ve 40.,50. a 60. letech. Zvláštní pozornost je věnována filmovému pojetí Holokaustu a rozdílným portrétů židovských postav ve vybraných filmech. Zabývá se otázkou amerikanizace Holokaustu jak v americké kultuře a společnosti, tak v americkém filmu.

Abstract:

The focus of my thesis is on the ways how the Holocaust event and its memory were perceived, presented, constructed and shaped in the postwar United States. The special emphasis is put on one of the most popular forms of the Holocaust remembrance- the American wartime and postwar cinema. The aim of my thesis is to point to and show the evidence of a very close interaction between the American sociopolitical and cultural context and the way the American wartime and postwar cinema faced the artistic and moral challenge of the Holocaust and the mutual relationship between artistic cinematic representation and the American public awareness of the Holocaust. The thesis particular focus is on the way Jewish characters were portrayed in selected films and what it says about the society and time, in which these films were produced.

Keywords

Holocaust, film, America, postwar, wartime, Americanization, trauma

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 28. 6. 2006

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 7. 9. 2006
• Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Master programme / field:
Philology / English Language and Literature