The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination

Lawrence L. Langer’s brilliant work from 1975. Langer categorises his writing as analysis of ‘the literature of atrocity’. The challenge as he describes it is how creative practice (literature) can make truth, realities of human experience from the Holocaust accessible to the human imagination. In this book he focuses on literature, the concepts he describes apply equally to visual art.



Each chapter of the book contains analysis of a work, or works of literature created from otherwise unspeakable experience. Langer sees the realities of the Holocaust as incomprehensible to the mind and emotions of human beings. His intention is to explore “the relationship between the empirical reality of the Holocaust and its artistic representation” (p. 3). In the employment of the imagination, through creative work, the human mind is more able to comprehend the unimaginable reality, working beyond the “language of fact” (p. 3).

Working with historical fact and imaginative truth makes such experiences ‘possible’ for the human imagination (p. 8). “Mere factual truth” as Langer describes it, does little to explain  human behaviours, and contradictions of real human individuals during the Holocaust. In this I include perception and belief, referencing Langer’s value on silence as a descriptive poetic voice, as well as speech (p. 9).

 

Langer, L. L. (1975) The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 2024.

Burton G. Malkiel’s classic investment guide, first published in 1973. In the introduction to this fiftieth anniversary edition, Malkiel states his position in his opening paragraph. That any investor will benefit from a long-term buy and hold strategy in an index fund over actively managed mutual funds (or individual securities). Malkiel now has 50 years of evidence which he outlines as follows: A person with $10,000 to invest in an index fund in 1977 would today (2022) have a portfolio worth $2,143,500, $666,467 more than in the average actively managed fund (p.20).

The title reflects the author’s views on the unpredictability of the stock market. Random Walk Theory makes useless the history of prices (on the basis there is no relationship to the future) and therefore nullifies the role of expertise. He introduces the work of Eugene Fama which I will write about in a separate post. Fama’s famous paper from 1970 analyses stock market behaviour using a model of efficient capital markets, the relationship of resource allocation and market efficiency, the accuracy, or ability of prices to “fully reflect” the information available to investors (Fama, 1970, p. 383).

The second part of the book is a practical guide to investing and asset allocation. Malkiel assesses risk and return, time, dollar-cost averaging, rebalancing and capacity for risk. A life-cycle guide to investing using principles to apply to portfolio management.

Conference Acceptances

I am delighted to be attending and presenting work at three fantastic conferences this year. The first, in May, is the ASN Annual World Convention co-hosted by the Harriman Institute at Columbia University in New York. I visited the institute in 2023 as a result of a travel stipend I was awarded by HREC to atttend the conference “The Assault on Culture in Ukraine: The Holodomor Years”.

The Thinker by Rodin at Columbia University. Photo: Author, 2023.

In July I travel to London to take part in the ICCEES XI World Congress. The congress is hosted by the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), the UK’s largest institution for research and teaching on the region. I will combine my visit with archival work at LSE, to read the diaries of Beatrice Webb.

In October I am very excited to be attending and presenting at the Dmytro Shtohryn International Ukrainian Studies Conference at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The thematic focus is on ‘continuities and ruptures’ across disciplines on topics related to Ukraine. For all three conferences I am presenting my new work, documented on this blog – visualisations of testimony from the Holodomor from the letters of Jerry Berman.

Berlin

I have been in Berlin this week for the superb 18th British Shorts film festival. The festival was the festival premiere for 90 Years from Holodomor, which appeared at City Kino Wedding to a sell out audience of 200 people. Because of demand, the same screening ran as an identical programme at Sputnik Kino on the same night, so my work also appeared in front of audiences across Berlin.

British Shorts filmmakers dragon

90 Years from Holodomor at British Shorts Berlin


The event was Short Film Screenings (Animation Special) & Audience Award. The programme was excellent, it was a huge compliment to make selection. The stand out film for me was And Granny Would Dance by Maryam Mohajer. A brilliant, character portrayal about memory, childhood and culture, beautifully constructed and produced by Animate Projects and the BFI. The film came third in the audience award which followed the animation screening. The winner was Previs by Ruaidhri Ryan, which I also loved.


And Granny Would Dance by Maryam Mohajer


I had a new life experience on my way to Berlin in the form of an emergency (unscheduled) landing at Heathrow due to an engine problem on the plane I was on, due to fly from Manchester – Munich. I downloaded the flight data – at first the huge drop in speed at 2.00am (all time in EST rather than local time) – almost half was alarming. Thanks to the brilliant flightradar24 site I was able to watch the full flight playback including the point at which the emergency was declared, the drop in speed was simply the aircraft turning over the channel. I also got the full details of the error messages and emergency codes (PAN PAN) online which is fascinating. The landing was a precaution, as was explained by the pilot at the time. I rebooked a flight from Heathrow to Berlin as soon as the plane landed and actually arrived in Berlin earlier than I would have done via Munich and the train. Below is my breakfast courtesy of Michelberger on my return journey.



FlightAware Flight Track Log


FlightAware Flight path.

A photograph of the plane landing at London Heathrow from the AIRLIVE website

Michelberger breakfast on the train from Berlin – Munich

Meeting notes with Lisa – 8 January 2025

 

Abstract revisions, Jerry Berman’s letters in the Holodomor Museum collection, my involvement, working at Harvard, inter-disciplinary connections across departments, Comay, uses of quotes and language, adding a time plan, visualisation and organising principles, Holocaust, literature of atrocity, Langer, next project, editing sections, Ukrainian heritage, my interest in the project, visual arts and graphic design, motion graphics, technical skills, teaching work, access to collections, making the letters available for other scholars, writing edits for chapter, structure, research questions and where, separating modular outcomes, biography and PhD, publishing, contributions to MAPA and other projects.

Lost in the Archives

Archival research and theory. I am interested in digital archiving, artistic practice and in particular the work of Rebecca Comay. In early September I visited the library at the Universität der Künste Berlin to find a copy of Comay’s collection of essays Lost in the Archives. In her introduction Comay defines the archival experience, through technology, archival practice and literature. I returned to the text at Leeds Beckett library in late September and read an interview with Geoffrey Hartman from 2000: The Ethics of Witness. This documents work in Yale’s Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Through the website I discovered the work of Lawrence L. Langer and I am now reading The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination. Langer’s ideas centre on what he describes as the ‘literature of atrocity’, where historical fact meets the artistic imagination.

Meeting with John Vsetecka

Meeting with John: 30 September 2024.

Proposal ideas, fellowship, MAPA, people, CV, digital humanities, storytelling and mapping, disciplines, archives, Arc GIS, future-proofing, software and hardware independence archives, Jerry Berman, Holodomor Museum, international research, The Holodomor in Global Perspective, publishing, next steps, second project – history of 20th century graphic design in Ukraine using postcard collection at HURI, visits, events, fellows, next steps – written version for 11 October.