Saturday, November 13, 2010

Vision

I feel like I have a sense of where I'm going with this now.  Here's a rough outline of what I have in mind.  None of this is set in stone (form or content), so please let me know if you have ideas.  Details to come:

I. Intro

II. Description of Holocaust Denial

Here I will give some background information about Holocaust denial: what it is, who still engages in it, some basic history, and anything else that might be useful.

III. Historical/Contextual Analysis: how Holocaust denial has changed as a result of Holocaust denial laws, the Internet, and the results of the Irving v. Lipstadt case.

     A. Holocaust denial laws

Here I will try to trace the history of laws that prohibit Holocaust denial: how they came to be, who has been prosecuted under them, and what has resulted from them.
    
     B. Holocaust denial, the internet, and globalization

Pretty self explanatory.  Much of Holocaust denial has shifted to the internet and international conferences in countries that allow such speech.    

     C. Irving v. Lipstadt case
    
This will probably resemble much of what I've already written on the subject.  In order to situate my argument, it will be important to argue why the case should have been a watershed moment that put questions of Holocaust denial to rest and speculation as to why people continue to deny the Holocaust.

     D. CODOH and IHR background and justification

Background on the organizations that I have chosen for my analysis: The Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH) and the Institute for Historical Review (IHR).  I chose CODOH because Bradley Smith's work gives good insight into how Holocaust deniers constitute themselves, the nature of their work, and how they view ideal and hostile audiences.  The IHR gives us a good sense of Holocaust deniers' arguments and rhetorical strategies.

IV. Explanation / justification of the project

Explain the particular texts I will be using and what I hope to find.

     A. Critical perspective: Public memory

Explanation of public memory, how it works, and how I will use it to think about my project.

V. CODOH Analysis

How they get you

VI. IHR Analysis

How they keep you

VII. Implications for Public Memory studies

How Holocaust denial presents a unique problem for public memory, and what that means

VIII. Potential approaches to combating Holocaust denial

     A. Laws

     B. Direct refutation (Nizkor project)

    C. Ignoring / Indirect refutation (Lipstadt)

    D. Non-Jewish direct refutation

IX. Evaluation

X. Conclusion

2 comments:

  1. I ran into this article today and thought it might go well with your project if you haven't already come upon it: Jeremy Engels, "The Politics of Resentment and the Tyranny of the Minority: Rethinking Victimage for Resentful Times," Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 40, (2010)

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  2. Indeed. In fact, that article made me a little crazy at the beginning of the semester because it was pretty much the exact paper I originally wanted to write for this class! Haha, oh well... such is life...

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