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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMTPON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Modern Languages Perceptions of Holocaust Memory: A Comparative study of Public Reactions to Art about the Holocaust at the Jewish Museum in New York and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (1990s-2000s) by Diana I. Popescu Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 2012 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHMAPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Modern Languages Doctor of Philosophy PERCEPTIONS OF HOLOCAUST MEMORY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PUBLIC REACTIONS TO ART EXHIBITIONS ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM IN NEW YORK AND THE ISRAEL MUSEUM IN JERUSALEM (1990s-2000s) by Diana I. Popescu This thesis investigates the changes in the Israeli and Jewish-American public perception of Holocaust memory in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and offers an elaborate comparative analysis of public reactions to art about the Holocaust. Created by the inheritors of Holocaust memory, second and third-generation Jews in Israel and America, the artworks titled Your Colouring Book (1997) and Live and Die as Eva Braun (1998), and the group exhibition Mirroring Evil. Nazi Imagery/Recent Art (2002) were hosted at art institutions emblematic of Jewish culture, namely the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and the Jewish Museum in New York. Unlike artistic representation by first generation, which tends to adopt an empathetic approach by scrutinizing experiences of Jewish victimhood, these artworks foreground images of the Nazi perpetrators, and thus represent a distancing and defamiliarizing approach which triggered intense media discussions in each case. The public debates triggered by these exhibitions shall constitute the domain for analyzing the emergent counter-positions on Holocaust memory of post-war generations of Jews and for delineating their ideological views and divergent identity stances vis-à-vis Holocaust memory. This thesis proposes a critical discourse analysis of public debates carried out by leading Jewish intellectuals, politicians and public figures in Israel and in America. It suggests that younger generations developed a global discourse which challenges a dominant meta-narrative of Jewish identity that holds victimization and a sacred dimension of the Holocaust as its fundamental tenets. Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………1 Chapter One Visual Art after the Holocaust in Israel and in the United States…………..13 I. Theodor W. Adorno’s ‘dictum’ and the Changes in the Academic Understanding of Art engagement with the Holocaust…………………….13 II. The shift from an Empathetic to a Detached artistic representation of the Holocaust in Israel and America……………………………………………………………………21 III. An Overview of temporary art exhibitions: Your Colouring Book (1997) and Live and Die as Eva Braun (1998) at the Israel Museum and Mirroring Evil. Nazi Imagery/Recent Art (2002) at the Jewish Museum…………………………………………………………………...36 Chapter Two A Theoretical Frame to the Development of Public Debates about the Holocaust at the Israel Museum and at the Jewish Museum…………………………………………………………………...59 I. The ‘Public Sphere’ and its Developments…………………………61 II. The Museum: from Gatekeeper of knowledge to Mediator of public discussion…………………………………………………………………71 II.1. Defining the Art Museum……………………………………....80 III. Performativity……………………………………………………...84 IV. Outline of Methodology…………………………………………....89 IV.1 Critical Discourse Analysis……………………………………..90 IV.2 The Media Discourse…………………………………………..93 Interlude to Analysis Chapters The Concept of ‘Generation’……………………………………………..96 Chapter Three Holocaust Memory Debates at the Israel Museum: A Battleground between State and Individual Perceptions of the Holocaust……………………………………………………………….108 I. The Context……………………………………………………..108 II. The National Narrative versus the Individual Counter- narrative………………………………………………………………….117 a) The Debate about Your Colouring Book (1997)……………………..118 b) The Debate about Live and Die as Eva Braun (1998)……………….137 c) ‘Tearing apart the sacred cow’ versus National Mythifications of Holocaust memory………………………………………………………152 Chapter Four The Holocaust Memory Debate at the Jewish Museum: Contesting American-Jewish Identity Narratives……………………………………..164 I. A Timeline of the Public Debate about Mirroring Evil. Nazi Imagery/Recent Art exhibition (2002)……………………………………....164 II. The Jewish Museum in Historical Context………………………..177 III. A Discussion of Major aspects of Holocaust Memory Narrative in America raised by Mirroring Evil exhibition……………………………….191 1) ‘Don’t Touch My Holocaust’: Holocaust Sanctification and Trivialization……………………………………………………….....191 2) Victimization and the Jewish-American Identity Politics………………212 Chapter Five A Comparative Perspective on Holocaust Memory Debates at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (1997-8) and at the Jewish Museum in New York (2002)…………………………………………………………………....238 I. The Jewish Museum in New York, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem: Between Caution and Nonchalance…………………………...240 II. The ‘Victim-Identity’ Narrative and the Sacralisation of the Holocaust among the Descendants of Holocaust Survivors in America and in Israel……………………………………………………………………..251 III. Conclusion………………………………………………………..261 Bibliography……………………………………………………………262 Appendix List of Illustrations Figure 1 Cover Page of art catalogue, Your Colouring Book Figure 2 Drawing no 4 from art catalogue Figure 3 Drawing no 5 from art catalogue Figure 4 Drawing no 8 from art catalogue Figure 5 Drawing no 9 from art catalogue Figure 6 Drawing no 6 from art catalogue Figure 7 Drawing no 12 from art catalogue Figure 8 Drawing no 13 from art catalogue Figure 9 Source no 1 in the art catalogue Figure 10 Source no 13 in the art catalogue Figure 11 Source no 8 in the art catalogue Figure 12 Source no 4 in the art catalogue Figure 13 Source no 5 in the art catalogue Figure 14 Image coloured by visitor in Vilnius Figure 15 Image coloured by visitor in Berlin Figure 16 Image coloured by visitor in Berlin Figure 17 Image coloured by visitor in Jerusalem Figure 18 Image coloured by visitor in Jerusalem DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, Diana I. Popescu declare that the thesis entitled Perceptions of Holocaust Memory: A Comparative study of Public Reactions to Art about the Holocaust at the Jewish Museum in New York and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (1990s-2000s) and the work presented in the thesis are both my own, and have been generated by me as the result of my own original research. I confirm that: . this work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; . where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated; . where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed; . where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; . I have acknowledged all main sources of help; . where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself; . parts of this work have been published as: Article: ‘Teach the Holocaust to the Children. The educational and performative dimension of Your Colouring Book – A wandering installation’, in PaRDes, Journal of the Association of Jewish Studies, 16 (Potsdam: University of Potsdam, 2010), pp. 134-153. Signed: …………………………… Date:……………………………… Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge the guidance and support offered by my supervisor Dr. Andrea Reiter. Her mentorship and care have been essential and have motivated me to move forward and improve. I am grateful for the advice and suggestions offered by Prof. Joachim Schlör, who has provided me with inspiring readings that allowed me to place the subject of this research within a broader intellectual framework. It is fair to say that my stay in Southampton could not have been possible without the very generous financial support from the University of Southampton, and from the Parkes Institute. I have been fortunate to benefit fully from the AHRC and the Archival studentships that enabled me to carry out my research abroad and complete this thesis. This project has opened new and inspiring avenues which I pursued with great interest and fascination. I am indebted to the curators and members of staff of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and of the Jewish Museum in New York, who have offered me access to a range of research materials, and have been interested to contribute to the development of this project. I am especially grateful to Susannah Landau, Yudit