Two faces of mystification: the representation of the holocaust in Arnold Schoenberg's a survivor from Warsaw and Steve Reich's different trains

Abstract

The paper discusses the approaches of different media to Holocaust (re)presentation, with special reference to art music in the 20th century. Following the classification proposed by Michael Rothberg on two possible perspectives for representing the Holocaust: realistic and anti-realist (2000), we analyse two compositions: Arnold Schoenberg’s A Survivor From Warsaw (1947) and Steve Reich’s Different Trains (1988). The aim of the paper is to point out how artistic music reflects and participates in the dominant historical and contemporary discourses of Holocaust representation, especially the discourses of “heroism” and “non-representability”.

Keywords

• holocaust
• arnold schoenberg
• steve reich
• art music
• politics of memory