Explaining the ambivalence : the Holocaust etiquette and Leonard Cohen's Flowers for Hitler and Beautiful losers
Date
2000
Authors
Hooper, Joseph Thomas
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Abstract
This thesis argues that our perceptions and representations of the Holocaust are shaped by what Terrance Des Pres calls the Holocaust Etiquette. In the initial chapter, the formation and perpetuation of the Etiquette are explored in relation to the historiography of the Holocaust. Current historical works serve as examples of the Etiquette, as well as evidence of a body of works that challenge its central tenets. The concerns of the Etiquette are then examined through the work of Leonard Cohen. The second chapter discusses how Cohen negotiates his ambivalent relationship with the Etiquette in his poetry collection Flowers for Hitler and his novel Beautiful Losers. Cohen's use of dialogue form and his stance as a "comparative mythographer" are the two main elements that shape this discussion.