Cinematic narratives of Sonderkommando: Son of saul or narrating the victim, perpetrator, trauma and death
The aim of this paper is to map out - by analysing the film Son of Saul, but also by its comparison with two other films dealing with the topic, Himmelkommando and The Grey Zone, the narrative mechanism that satisfies the complex ethical and aesthetical demands imposed by the theme of So...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Victimology Society of Serbia and University of Belgrade, Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation
2016-01-01
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| Series: | Temida |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1450-6637/2016/1450-66371604477D.pdf |
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| Summary: | The aim of this paper is to map out - by analysing the film Son of Saul, but
also by its comparison with two other films dealing with the topic,
Himmelkommando and The Grey Zone, the narrative mechanism that satisfies the
complex ethical and aesthetical demands imposed by the theme of
Sonderkommando as the particular episode of the Holocaust. The key element of
the narrative structure is the construction of the Levi’s “dead and drowned”
witness who “resurrected” through the narrative intervention becomes the only
reliable and credible narrator of the historical trauma. The prerequisite for
his emergence is the narration and representation of the death which makes
but also solves the traumatised - understood as multiple, fragmented, opposed
- identities of the members of the special squad. Their entangled identity
involves the simultaneous presence of a victim, perpetrator, witness and the
authentic narrator of the trauma of the death camp. The death of the
perpetrator is the condition sina qua non for the emergence of the figure of
the victim-witness narrator but also for making of narrative which overcomes
the initial trauma of the Holocaust. The detailed analysis of the film Son of
Saul confirms and identifies these narratives as the modernist narration of
the post-traumatic film. |
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| ISSN: | 1450-6637 2406-0941 |