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Cultural Memory and the Traumatic Past: Examining the Voids in Contemporary German and Uruguayan Literature, Museums, and Film

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Cultural Memory and the Traumatic Past: Examining the Voids in Contemporary German and Uruguayan Literature, Museums, and Film Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 8-27-2018 10:00 AM Cultural Memory and the Traumatic Past: Examining the Voids in Contemporary German and Uruguayan Literature, Museums, and Film Jessica Paola Marino The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Blankenship, Janelle S. The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Comparative Literature A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Arts © Jessica Paola Marino 2018 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons Recommended Citation Marino, Jessica Paola, "Cultural Memory and the Traumatic Past: Examining the Voids in Contemporary German and Uruguayan Literature, Museums, and Film" (2018). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 5580. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/5580 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract This thesis investigates how “voids” are used as a poetic lens in German and Uruguayan literature, film, music, museum spaces and memory places to excavate traumatic events of the twentieth-century and represent them in collective memory, further promoting a new understanding of historical experiences. These voids are used to symbolize gaping wounds left in Uruguayan culture after the military dictatorship of 1973-1985, the sense of absence and emptiness left in German-Jewish culture after the Holocaust and the breaks, ruptures and divisions in Germany post-WWII. Case studies include the architectural “Voids” in Libeskind’s Jewish Museum Berlin, “empty tombs” and installations on the “Disappeared” in the Museum of Memory in Montevideo and the powerful gaps, voids, wastelands and absences in literary texts by Peter Weiss, W.G. Sebald, Mauricio Rosencof, poetry by Mario Benedetti musicalized by Daniel Viglietti, and films by Wim Wenders, Richard Copan and Stan Neuman and Enrique Buchichio. Keywords Holocaust, Divided Germany, Civil-Military Dictatorship of Uruguay, Jewish Museum Berlin, Museum of Memory Montevideo, Daniel Libeskind, Peter Weiss, Winfred Georg Sebald, Mario Benedetti, Daniel Viglietti, Mauricio Rosencof, Richard Copan, Stan Neuman, Wim Wenders, Enrique Buchichio, Los Desaparecidos, voids, trauma studies, museum studies, memory studies, collective memory, urban memory spaces. i Acknowledgments I would like to thank all faculty, friends and family who supported me intellectually, emotionally, etc., throughout this process. At the University of Western Ontario, I would like to give many thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Janelle Blankenship, for guiding me in every step of the way and sharing her knowledge with me for this project. I would also like to thank Dr. David Darby, who through the role of Second Reader, provided me with extensive feedback to improve my second chapter and gave me a first external opinion on how the project was going. I would like to thank Dr. James Miller, who taught me the ins and outs of thesis writing and also encouraged me to become a better scholar. I also would like to give many thanks to the following people: Dr. Cristina Caracchini, who started as my TA Supervisor and became my mentor in these exciting and challenging two years at Western; Sylvia Kontra, who gave valuable advice and words of encouragement, helping me succeed; and Dr. Rafael Montano, who provided important feedback on my third chapter and reassured me of any doubts I had regarding this project. I would also like to thank my fiancé David, who gave me the emotional support to continue to work hard and tackle every obstacle regardless of its magnitude or difficulty and our dog Bella, who accompanied me every day, every hour, while I read, wrote, or proofread to her. I would also like to extend my thanks to God for guiding me in this challenging journey, and to my family both in Canada and in Uruguay, future family-in law, and friends who were always there to give a helping hand regardless of what the task was and did so with lots of love. Special thanks are in order to my aunt Rosana Varela, who acted as my research assistant in Uruguay and was always there when I needed her. Finally, I would not have been able to write this project without the inspiration from my professors in the German and Spanish programs at York University who first led me to the wonderful worlds of literature, film, music, art, and history. Special thanks to Dr. María Figueredo, who taught me to be passionate about my roots and to Dr. Christina Kraenzle who first introduced me to the “voids” in the topography of Berlin. ii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................i Acknowledgments ..............................................................................................................ii Table of Contents ...............................................................................................................iii List of Figures ....................................................................................................................iv Introduction .........................................................................................................................v Chapter One: Showcasing the Voids: Reading German-Jewish Cultural Memory, Trauma and Absence in Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum Berlin .............................1 Chapter Two: Filling in the Voids: Representations of Historical Trauma, Cultural Memory and Absence in Contemporary and Post-War German Literature and Film ..............................................................................................................................35 Chapter Three: Digging up the Past: Uruguayan Literature, Music and Film in Response to Political Oppression .................................................................................71 Chapter Four: The Memory of Urban Spaces: The Museum of Memory giving Voice to Uruguay’s Traumatic Past ......................................................................................122 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................163 Works Cited ....................................................................................................................173 Curriculum Vitae ............................................................................................................194 iii List of Figures Figure 1: Via Lewandowsky’s Gallery of the Missing - Ordnung des Verschwindens |Order of Disappearance – Jewish Museum Berlin .........................................................18 Figure 2: Menashe Kadishman’s Shalekhet – Fallen Leaves – Jewish Museum Berlin ...21 Figure 3: No-Man’s Land (Wenders, Wings of Desire) ....................................................41 Figure 4: Uncanny Rubble Memory (Wenders, Wings of Desire) ....................................48 Figure 5: El Museo de la Memoria / Museum of Memory – Montevideo, Uruguay ......135 Figure 6: Personal Memories and Collective Trauma: Prisoners’ Jumpsuits – Museum of Memory …..………………………………………........…...…..136 Figure 7: Pots as Protest: Las Cacerolas – Museum of Memory ...................................140 Figure 8: Cover Image: La Cacerola Bulletin (Vol. 1. Issue 1, 1984) ...........................142 Figure 9: Hall of “Los Desaparecidos” (Disappeared) – Museum of Memory ..............145 Figure 10: Empty Tombs (Temporary Exhibition) – Museum of Memory .…...............147 Figure 11: Fragmented Text (Museum Placard) – Museum of Memory ........................151 Figure 12: Memorial de los Detenidos Desaparecidos Montevideo / Memorial of the Detained-Disappeared ….…..…...…………………………………………..153 iv Introduction Stepping into the Voids The subjects of trauma, memory, and the related issues of remembering and forgetting the past are not easy to discuss. When these subjects are expanded and connected to an entire nation, it can become even more difficult. This is certainly the case when we are dealing with the thorny questions of forgetting and remembering a traumatic historical event such as the Holocaust or the brutality of a military dictatorship. What should a society remember from such traumatic episodes in history? Why is it important to not forget? And, what happens when what we want to remember is a gaping absence left in society; a void that cannot be filled? These are the questions that frame this thesis and come to mind when we examine history, collective memory, trauma and loss. Contemporary German and Uruguayan authors, architects, filmmakers, artists and musicians have often grappled with these questions when addressing the recent traumatic past. In this research project I use analytical tools and methodology taken from museum studies, literary studies, cultural studies, memory studies and trauma studies to focus on how a number of German and Uruguayan literary texts (some musicalized), films, and museum spaces engage with the “voids” left behind by historical trauma. On the one hand, the texts in this thesis engage with symbolic voids, pointing to absent historical subjects. However, on the other hand, in these cultural products we also find a web of other voids: empty spaces
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