Memory Effects: The Holocaust and the Art of Secondary Witnessing 0813530490, 9780813530499

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MEMORY EFFECTS THE OF

HOLOCAUST SECONDARY

AND THE ART. WITNESSING As VA

DORA

APEL

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AND

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SECONDARY

WITNESSING

DORA

RUTGERS

UNIVERSITY

UL

PRESS

New Brunswick,

APEL

New Jersey, and London

SAUK VALLEY CC LRC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Apel, Dora, 195 2-

Memory effects : the holocaust and the art of secondary witnessing / Dora Apel.

p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-813 5—3048—2 (alk. paper) —ISBN 0-813 5—3049-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Art, Jewish.

2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in art. I. Title.

N7417.6 .A64 2002 704.9'499405318—dc21

2001048793

British Cataloging-in-Publication information is available from the British Library.

Permission has been generously granted for use of the following copyrighted works. Paul Celan, “(I know you),” from Breathturn, trans. by Pierre Joris (Los Angeles: Sun and Moon Press,

1995), 93. Copyright © 1995 by Pierre Joris. Reprinted with the permission of the publisher. Edmond Jabes, first poem in the second part of The Book of Yukel in the chapter “In Touéh with the Book,” from The Book of Questions reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press. Charles Reznikoff, section 5 of the poem “Massacres,” from Holocaust reprinted by permission of Black Sparrow Press, 24 Tenth Street, Santa Rosa, California 95401. Chris Tysh, “Tombeau II for Paul Celan (1920-1970)” © Chris Tysh from Continuity Girl, United Artists Books, 2000.

Copyright © 2002 by Dora Apel All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, N] 08854-8099. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law. BOOK

DESIGN

AND

TYPOGRAPHY

BY

JENNY

DOSSIN

Manufactured in the United States of America

For Rachel Apel Wittkopp with love

CONEENTES

ILLUSTRATIONS PREFACE

AND

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

The Artist as Secondary Witness CHAPTER

ONE

A Short History of Holocaust Reception CHAPTER

TWO

Picturing the Vanished/Transgressing the Present CHAPTER

THREE

The Reinvention of Memory CHAPTER

wo}

FOUR

Appropriating the Testimonial Form CHAPTER

Q2

FIVE

Landscape and the Search for Memory CHAPTER

108

SIX

Fetishized Nazism and Erotic Fantasy CHAPTER

SEVEN

The Tattooed Jew CONCLUSION EPILOGUE. NOTES REFERENCES INDEX

43

PERSONAL

NOTES

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