War/Resistance and the Aftermath

Albert Camus (1913-1960)

A French-Algerian author born in ALGERIA WHO HUGELY CONTRIBUTED to existentialist and absurdist movements. Camus was very critical of colonialism presence and was trusted by leaders of resistance groups spoke on their behalf.

Brief History of Algeria

North Africa, Arab

• Conquered by the French in 1830 (particularly bloody: 1/3 of Algerian population massacred by the French

• Various emirs led resistances to the French (colonization not fully complete until the early 1900’s)

• Settlements (by the French) led to confiscation of Algerian lands

• Those of French/European descent (like Camus) referred to as Pieds-Noirs (black feet/shoes)

• Arabs/Muslims in particular (even those who fought for the French in the two world wars) were denied citizenship and the rights involved in citizenship

• 1954 begins the War of Independence (of which Frantz Fanon was an integral part), a particularly violent campaign for decolonization

• The struggle continued for years, resulting in French mass exodus in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s

• Independence gained in 1962

“The Stranger” character analysis (Mersault)

-Mersault is a French settler in Algeria. At mother’s funeral and doesn’t feel much. Goes and randomly shoots someone (Arab man) and has uncomplicated feelings about this. By the novel's end, Meursault embraces the absurdity of life and finds peace in his meaningless existence. His final acceptance mirrors Sisyphus' revolt—he does not search for false comfort but instead fully embraces his fat

Mersault is an absurd hero—> Since the colonial system is a completely irrational and illogical system, Mersault sees himself as a mirror of the universe and revels in its absurdism.

Absurd Hero

Absurd heroes may not be conventionally heroic. They do not conquer nations, overcome external obstacles, or achieve grand destinies. Instead, they find power in embracing the absurd and living in defiance of meaninglessness.

Sisyphus

-Sisyphus finds purpose in moving the boulder—> the idea that purpose will always be purposeless.

-Moment at top—> “I’ve done it” followed by moment of silence/peace. Sisyphus’ favorite part.

Absurdism

Finds beauty in the fact that life is so absurd. Our choices are our own and these choices have consequences. Nothing (no god, religion, spirit) really controls us. Do divine purpose.

Existentialism: Camus and Sartre

-Sartre defines existentialism by the principle that existence precedes essence: people exist first, then shape who they are through their choices and actions, for which they must take responsibility. Sartre is grappling with his own philosophical framework in his work, he makes contradictory statements. For instances, starts by negating universality to appealing to universality.

“Existentialism is Humanism”

-A Post-WW2 lecture (1946). Response to the “duty” justification made during the war.

“And, when we say that man is responsible for himself, we do not mean that he is responsible only for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men” (754).

“What is what I mean when I say that man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, yet is nevertheless at liberty, and from the moment that he is thrown into this world he is responsible for everything that he does” (755).

“A New Man”

Camus, Sartre, and Fanon are idealists who believe a lot in human potential. They believe in the notion of “A New Man” who is completely separate from the past.

Hiroshima

-Under President Truman.

-Prior to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Russians had already made a peace deal with Japan.

-Direct deaths (estimates) of Hiroshima: 140k instantly. 5k die later of the effects of the bomb + suffer from infertility and psychological issues.

“The Rite”: BACKGROUND

-Written in 1963 by Takenishi Hiroko.

-Takenishi is 16 years old when the bomb drops in on Hiroshima.

-”The Rite” switches between 1st and 3rd person to symbolize the connection between Takenishi and Aki (main character).

-Story is told in a fragmented, dreamlike manner, reflecting how deeply traumatic experiences can disrupt a person’s memory.

The Rite”: Plot Summary

Set years after the Hiroshima atomic bombing, the narrative follows Aki, a female survivor navigating daily life in post-war Japan while trapped in survivor's guilt and lingering trauma.

-Beginning: Injured man is being carried out in a gurney, ends up dying. Aki is surrounded by death, which prompts her to reflect way to memorialize death.

-Aki works for a construction/rebuilding combat,

-Tomiko—> Aki’s friend that battles with miscarriages. Keeps all her dead fetuses in a jear.

-Setsuko: Aki’s friend that battles with/is dying of cancer. Husband leaves her for “diplomacy affairs”

-Kiyoko/Zazue/Emiko/Ikuko: Friends of Aki’s whom she never quite figured out how/if they died. She can’t properly mourn their deaths—> lack of closure.

-The end—> Aki closes the curtain shut on the window, closing herself off to the world and leaving her life on hold. She does not go through an epiphany and walks arounds as a living dead. “A whiteness starts to spread”—> it can represent an emptiness that consumeseverything, reflecting the bomb’s destruction of both thephysical cityand Aki’s inner world.

“The Rite”: Analysis

As friends and fellow survivors continue to succumb to delayed radiation illnesses, Aki experiences profound alienation from ordinary society and finds herself unable to escape the memories of the catastrophe. Aki lives in a numbed state throughout the text. Story questions how someone or humanity could “go on” from a tragedy such as, Hiroshima.

“Rites”—> how to balance respecting/properly mourning the dead without objectifying them.

Melancholia

(Freud) Loss of the capacity to love; lowering of self regarding feelings; profoundly painful dejection and inhibition of all activity. Finds utterance in self-reproaches. Dejection of self that culminates in a kind of delusion. Emptying of the ego/rejection of self.

Representing the Holocaust

Addresses the differing opinions of theorists and authors on how to properly represent the holocaust and who should be representing it.

Theodore Adorno and the Limits of Representation (1962)

-German-Jewish Theorist who studied in the Frankfurt School of Theorists. Argued that producing any art about the Holocaust, regardless of intention, is barbaric: “Cultural criticism finds itself faced with the final stage of the dialectic of culture and barbarism. To write poetry after the Holocaust is barbaric.”

-Met with a lot of pushback against survivors. Adorno mostly sticks to his statements and argues that any art is cultural property that complies with the history/ideologies that led to the Holocaust. WE DO NOT DESERVE CATHARSIS

-Other discourse about limits of representation: “The Survivors Obligation” by Ellie Wiesel (survivors have an obligation to write about their experiences). Primo Levi says only true witnesses are those who died, which Lyotards goes against as this thinking might perpetuate denial of Holocaust.”

Paul Celan and “Death Fugue”

-Celan and his family were Romanian but leaned more towards German language and culture (they were affluent). After war, he tries to reject the German language/culture he was brought up with. Poem serves as a representation of this “German amnesia.” No room for catharsis in this poem.

“Death Fugue”

-Fragmented language: Leaves in some German words.

-”Fugue”: Either a musical term meaning two melodic themes that are intermingled to form a single structure —> Intermingling of Margarete (German ideal) with Schlulamit (Jewish).

OR a pathological disturbance of consciousness, in which a patient acts in a way in which he appears to be conscious; upon reflection, does not remember or understand anything—>German/cultural amnesia.

-Repetition within piece is visceral—> Black Milk (symbolism is contested). Could represent inverse of life/nourishment, omnipresence of death/trauma (he drinks it at all parts of the day), the ashes of the crematoria.

Prosopopoeia and Non-Suvivor’s Appropriations of the Holocaust

-Speaking for the dead/inhabiting the dead.

-Do writers have the right to use the events of the holocaust to try to get another point across/try to speak for the dead?

Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” (1962)

-Plath, who is neither a survivor or Jewish, writes an autobiographical poem connecting Nazism to the Patriarchy and Jewish people to women. Extended metaphor and uses the Holocaust as more of a representation of human/systemic problems.

-Critiques how easily we fall into these perpetrator/victim roles.

Maus by Art Spiegelman (90s)

Spiegelman’s Maus revolutionizes the art of graphic novels because it opens up serious topics to this form.

-Spielgelman is writing is as his experience (mini memoirs) with Holocaust survivors (his family). He writes about his experiences dealing with never being able to live up to the trauma of his family.

-Muas has two main characters: Art Spiegelman (himself) and his father, Vladek Spiegelman, a Holocaust survivor whose story Art recounts..

Maus as Art’s way to get closer to his mother.

Artie is asking his father for his experiences during the Holocaust to try to connect to his mother more (she died and his father tries to repress her memory for his own comfort).

The pressure to make one’s story more digestible

“I’ll make It how you want it”—> survivors are pressured to make their content more digestible to the audience. Memories are faulty, why can;t we accept that?

Book 2 Maus

-Art wears a mouse mask to represent survivors without necessarily being one. Art gets smaller and smaller throughout.

-Art questions who has the responsibility to represent survivor’s: “every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness”

Amichai and Darwish