Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land and Due Date Reminders

Hi folks--technical indigestion is over. A few date reminders:

Reading responses for Schindler's List will be due next Tuesday 23 February, in class or in Avery 475 by 5 PM
Reading responses for Sara Nomberg-Przytyk's Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land will also be due Tuesday 23 February

You should plan to finish Auschwitz by tomorrow's class, when we will discuss the text and discussion questions outlined below:

1. Gender plays an important role in Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land, and more specifically, maternal relationships are a recurring motif in the text. Noting the specific examples in which Nomberg-Przytyk invokes the role of motherhood in camp life, how do you interpret this motif? What are her motivations for invoking the maternal? How is her approach to gender different from/similar to Delbo's approach in Auschwitz and After?


2. As we acknowledged in our discussion of Levi's Survival in Auschwitz, camp hierarchy and the organization of camp life is central to representation of life in Auschwitz. What does the structure Nomberg-Przytyk outlines look like? How is the camp organized? How is her description of the hierarchy different from Levi's focus on the economy of camp life?

3. How is the text structured? Most critics describe the text as a series of vignettes (short literary sketches), the very same description used in summaries of Delbo's Auschwitz and After. How is the function of Nomberg-Przytyk's vignette different from that of the vignette found in Delbo's text? Why is the term vignette used instead of chapter? How do you understand the function of chapter sequence in a narrative?

4. What is the role of medicine in the infirmary? How does Nomberg-Przytyk depict the role of medicine in the infirmary and in camp life?