AP/JWST 4824 3.00
Imagining Anne Frank: The Girl, The Diary, the Afterlives
Almost seventy-five years ago, in June of 1942, Anne Frank penned her first entry into the red checkered diary that she had just received for her thirteenth birthday. By many estimates, Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, first published in 1947 and in English translation in 1952, and by now translated into over 70 languages, is the most widely read narrative to emerge from the Holocaust. Frank’s Diary has engendered musical compositions, works of fine art, biography, fiction, poetry, dance and film. The web of meanings associated with it extends well beyond its historical context and the chronology of a young girl’s life cut tragically short. Since its publication, the diary has drawn debate, attracting the attention of strong partisans who saw in it different messages and interpretations. The popularity of the diary has pulled Frank into public consciousness, making of her an icon, a figure bearing the meanings brought to the diary by her readers in their own cultural moments and contexts.
Focusing on the composition, history and reception of the diary and its adaptation to stage and screen, as well as the myriad literary responses which re-imagine Frank as a character, symbol, or referent. The course will explore issues of lifewriting, personal and collective memory, and interpretation of the past. Tracing the “”afterlives”” of Frank will provide a case study for addressing the broader question of how and why certain cultural works inspire attachment, fantasy, reinterpretation and rethinking.
RESERVED SPACES: All spaces reserved for Year 3 & 4 Humanities & Religious Studies and Jewish Studies Majors and Minors.