Slovo a Smysl (Aug 2015)
Čtyřikrát o holokaustu // Four Times the Holocaust
Abstract
The article focuses on several recent Czech books and movies on the topic of the Holocaust, or Shoah. Some of these works are original and inventive (Jáchym Topol’s prose book Chladnou zemí from 2009) or at least worthy of interest (Mark Najbrt’s film Protektor from 2009), some are conventional and exploit well-established narrative procedures and patterns (Radka Denemarková’s prose book Peníze od Hitlera from 2006, Milan Cieslar’s film Colette from 2013, after Arnošt Lustig’s book). Today, the Holocaust is perceived as a global icon, representing inhumanity and referring to universal moral norms. However, at the same time one can clearly observe a tendency to trivialization in the way the topic is presented — more and more often containing intimity, brutality, sexuality. Some artists, to oppose the trend, look for ways of giving the Shoah in the way it‘s presented a new actuality, for instance by employing the grotesque as well as black humour, or by combining terror with vulgarity and banality (besides Topol also Arnošt Goldflam and Radek Malý).
