Malgorzata Pakier

European University Institute
Department of History and Civilisation
Via Boccaccio 121
50133 Firenze (Fi)
Italy

email: malgorzata.pakier@eui.eu

Contemporary Discourse on the Holocaust in the European Popculture

Despite numerous limits to the representation of the Holocaust imposed by intellectuals after the II World War, this historical event has developed into one of the popcultural icons. To what extent have the popular images of the Holocaust influenced its memory? What is the idea of the Holocaust's memory in the contemporary trends of its representation? Considering questions like these it is necessary to view the socio-cultural background of the popular Holocaust's images. I want to analyse the discourse changes through generations using the concept of "postmemory". It was formulated by Marianne Hirsch to describe a phenomenon of the secondary memory shaped by media, specific for the second and the third generation after the Holocaust.