Turning to Life: The Holocaust in the Cinema of Arnošt Lustig

Subject guarantor:

Name of lecturer(s):

Learning outcomes of the course unit:

The student of any seminal epoch in human history, and of literature and film, is invited to embark upon an exciting cinematic journey to experience an unusual survivor's fate in the heart of Europe, and to reflect upon existential dilemmas of the past, as they relate to the present and the future.

Mode of study:

Prerequisites and co-requisites:

None

Recommended optional programme components:

None

Course contents:

The Prague Jewish writer, Arnost Lustig (1926-2011) survived as a teenager the horrors of Nazi concentration camps of Terezin, Buchenwald and Auschwitz-Birkenau, during World War II. A rare survivor, he spent his life bearing witness to the horrors of the Holocaust, having written 23 collections of fiction and non-fiction, and having taught for nearly half of a century at Czech and foreign universities.

During the famed 1960's, based on his stories, Arnost Lustig wrote four screenplays to award-winning feature films of the Czechoslovak New Wave. During his exile from Czechoslovakia, in the wake of the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion, he co-authored six documentary screenplays about the Holocaust (including an EMMY winner). His fiction and documentary films span an arch of authentic experience that covers a survivor's universe. Although like any other survivor's experiences springing from oppression and evil, in Arnost Lustig's case, his work aims to resilience and hope.

He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Nobel Prize in literature (along with Milan Kundera, Phillip Roth and Bob Dylan).

Recommended or required reading:

Reading:

Arnost Lustig's writings:

The stories „Stephen and Ann“ and „Blue Flames“ from the collection NIGHT AND HOPE;

The stories „Second Round,“ and „Darkness Casts No Shadows“ from the collection DIAMONDS OF THE NIGHT - or the short novel „The Prayer for Katerina Horovitzova“ in lieu of „Darkness Casts No Shadow“;

The essay „Auschwitz-Birkenau.“

Planned learning activities and teaching methods:

THE SCHEDULE (Friday April 11 - Saturday April 12, 2014)

DAY I:

9:30-10:15 am Lecture: The Holocaust (history, ontology and epistemology)

10:20-12:50 pm Screening: THE PRECIOUS LEGACY

(documentary, dir. Dan Weismann, 29 min.)

TRANSPORT FROM PARADISE

(feature, dir. Zbynek Brynych, 120 min.)

12:50-1:30 pmLunch break

1:30-2:15 pm Lecture: From Experience to Communication (speech and literature)

2:20-4:35 pmScreening: A BITE TO EAT (short, dir. Jan Nemec, 10 min.)

COLETTE (feature, dir. Milan Cieslar, 125 min.)

4:40-5:00 pmSummary of Day I

DAY II:

9:30-10:15 amLecture: Adaptation as a Challenge (dramaturgy and screenwriting)

10:20-11:20 amScreening: THE PRAYER FOR KATERINA HOROVITZOVA

(film for television, dir. Antonin Moskalyk, 60 min.)

11:25-12:30 pmScreening: DIAMONDS OF THE NIGHT (feature, dir. Jan Nemec,

62 min.)

12:30- 1:15 pm Lunch break

1:15-2:00 pmLecture: Communicating the Incommunicable (cross-cultural and artistic communication)

2:05-3:45 pm Screening: DITA SAXOVA (feature, dir. Antonin Moskalyk, 98 min.)

3:50-4:50 pmScreening: MY OLD MAN AND HIS FAVORITE CONCENTRATION

CAMPS (documentary, dir. Josef Lustig, 57 min.)

4:55-5:15 pmSummary of Day II

Assessment methods and criteria:

Assignment:

One two-page paper comparing and contrasting a chosen film's literary basis with the film in terms of the theme and dramaturgy;

One two-page paper comparing and contrasting two films in terms of their film language.

Course web page:

Note:

The two-day module consists of four lectures and eight film screenings offered by the documentary filmmaker Josef Lustig, Ph.D. (FAMU), the author's son.

Further information:

No schedule has been prepared for this course

The subject is a part of the following study plans: