Performative Holocaust Commemoration in the 21st Century

This book charts the performative dimension of the Holocaust memorialization culture through a selection of representative artistic, educational, and memorial projects.
Performative practice refers to the participatory and performance-like aspects of the Holocaust memorial culture, the transformative potential of such practice, and its impact upon visitors. At its core, performative practice seeks to transform individuals from passive spectators into socially and morally responsible agents. This edited volume explores how performative practices came into being, what impact they exert upon audiences, and how researchers can conceptualise and understand their relevance. In doing so, the contributors to this volume innovatively draw upon existing philosophical considerations of performativity, understandings of performance in relation to performativity, and upon critical insights emerging from visual and participatory arts.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History.

List of contents

Introduction: Performative Holocaust commemoration in the 21st century
Diana I. Popescu and Tanja Schult
1. The Holocaust is present: reenacting the Holocaust, then and now
Rachel E. Perry
2. 'Doing' memory: performativity and cultural memory in Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller's Alter Bahnhof Video Walk
Laura M.F. Bertens
3. Archaeological fever: situating participatory art in the rubble of the Warsaw ghetto
Maria Magdalena Dembek
4. Reading the traces: embodied engagement with the past at three former Nazi concentration camps
Kerry Whigham
5. Remembrance in the Living Room [Zikaron b'Salon]: grassroots gatherings as new forms of Holocaust commemoration in Israel
Liat Steir-Livny
6. Pedagogy, performativity and 'never again': staging plays from the Terezín Ghetto
Lisa Peschel and Alan Sikes

Summary

This book charts the performative dimension of the Holocaust memorialization culture through a selection of representative artistic, educational, and memorial projects.

Product details

• Authors: Diana I. Schult Popescu
• Assisted by: Diana I. Popescu (Editor), Popescu Diana I. (Editor), Tanja Schult (Editor)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 16.09.2021
• EAN: 9780367711450
• ISBN: 978-0-367-71145-0
• No. of pages: 152
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Modern era up to 1918; History, Europe, RELIGION / Judaism / General, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / Jewish, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / European, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Jewish Studies, Jewish Studies, Fascism & Nazism, Second World War, The Holocaust, Judaism, Far-right political ideologies and movements, c 1940 to c 1949, c 1939 to c 1945 (including WW2), Relating to Jewish people and groups, Social groups: religious groups and communities, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / Holocaust, History / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / European Theater