MELC 318A/GLITS 314B
Please note: students may sign up for this course under either prefix - MELC or GLITS. It is the same course! If you have any questions about how the credits may count toward a major or minor in MELC, or a major in GLITS, please speak with the advisors in Humanities Academic Services.
LITERATURE AND THE HOLOCAUST
Autumn 2025
5 credits
A&H and DIV
T/Th 11:30-1:20
Professor Naomi Sokoloff
Office Hours: Wednesday 10:30-12:00 or by appointment
Office: Denny 220
e-mail: naosok@uw.edu
By examining fiction, poetry, memoirs, diaries, monuments, commix, and other aspects of popular culture, this course will explore literary responses to the Nazi Holocaust. How has literature imagined and reacted to the persecution of Jews and other marginalized groups – including Roma and Sinti, homosexuals, and people with disabilities? Among the topics to be covered: bearing witness and survivor testimony; the shaping of collective memory; the second generation; Holocaust education and children's literature; gender and the Holocaust; fantasy and humor in representations of catastrophe.
Students may opt to take this as a W course by completing additional writing assignments. Revision, editing, and reworking of essay assignments is an integral part of a W course.
Any student in this course who wishes to read some texts in Hebrew may contact the instructor and make arrangements to register for an additional 2-3 credits of independent study (MODHEB 490 or MODHEB 600).
Required Texts
Most materials, including poems and lecture notes, will be available at the course website. In addition, students should have access to:
Art Spiegelman, Maus I and Maus II
Doris Bergen, War and Genocide (available as e-book through UW Libraries)
Course Requirements
Students are expected to complete the reading assignments on time, to participate in class discussion, and to hand in brief writing assignments (homework or in-class exercises) on a regular basis. There will be two in-class tests (no final exam) and one paper (1250-1500 words; 5-7 pages), and there will be opportunities for earning extra credit (adding a maximum of .1 to the final grade).
Final grades will be determined as follows:
- Essay: 30%
- Test 1: 15%
- Test 2: 15%
- Homework, in-class writing, and quizzes: 30%
- Class Presentation: 10%
Grading Scale
4.0 = 98-100
3.9 = 96-97
3.8 = 94-95
3.7 = 92-93
3.6 = 91
3.5 = 90
3.4 = 89
3.3 = 88
3.2 = 87
3.1 = 86
3.0 = 85
2.9 = 84
etc.
Incompletes will be assigned only in accordance with UW policy.
https://depts.washington.edu/grading/policies/reporting.html