Testimonial Montage


Book Description

Testimonial Montage: A Family of Israeli Holocaust Testimonies from the Cracow Ghetto Resistance explores interconnected testimonies of four Holocaust survivors who were members of the Akiva youth group in Cracow, Poland, who participated in the ghetto resistance. Drawing on literary and photographic discourse, Jelen extracts the contours of personal narrative from the collective voice present in these interconnected testimonies. Attuned to stories of lost youth, sexual exploitation, and the dissolution of community and family, Jelen approaches Holocaust testimonies as one would members of a family with their shared experiences and common background, but also as individuals with their own unique voices. Departing from historical methodologies, Jelen models a different, wholistic approach to Holocaust testimonies, one which seeks to make sense of testimonies in the full breadth of their unfolding, across time, across space, and across genre.




The SAGE Handbook of Political Advertising


Book Description

The SAGE Handbook of Political Advertising provides a comprehensive view of the role political advertising plays in democracies around the world. Editors Lynda Lee Kaid and Christina Holtz-Bacha, along with an international group of contributors, examine the differences as well as the similarities of political advertising in established and evolving democratic governments. Key Features: Offers an international perspective: This Handbook examines the political television advertising process that has evolved in democracies around the world, including countries in Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa, Latin America, and North America. In addition, a comparative overview addresses the effects of political advertising on the voters and the systems of which it is a part. Provides comprehensive coverage: For each country presented, an analysis is given of its political advertising history, its cultural implications, the political and regulatory systems related to political advertising, the effects of media system structures, and the effects of new technologies. Includes examples from recent elections: The role specific candidate- or party-controlled television plays in a specific region′s electoral process is examined. Original research on recent elections confirms the expanding significance of this form of political communication. This is an excellent resource for media professionals and practicing journalists, as well as a welcome addition to any academic library. It can also be used as a textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on Political Advertising in the fields of Political Science, Communication, Broadcasting, Journalism, and International Relations.




States of Exception in the Contemporary Novel


Book Description

In the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks, the political situation in both the United States and abroad has often been described as a "state of exception": an emergency situation in which the normal rule of law is suspended. In such a situation, the need for good decisions is felt ever more strongly. This book investigates the aesthetics, ethics, and politics of various decisions represented in novels published around 9/11: Martel's Life of Pi, Eugenides' Middlesex, Coetzee's Disgrace, and Sebald's Austerlitz. De Boever's readings of the novels revolve around what he calls the 'aesthetic decision.' Which aesthetics do the characters and narrators in the novels adopt in a situation of crisis? How do these aesthetic decisions relate to the ethical and political decisions represented in the novels? What can they reveal about real-life ethical and political decisions? This book uncovers the politics of allegory, autobiography, focalization, and montage in today's planetary state of exception.




Video Production Techniques


Book Description

Video Production Techniques begins with the basic skills of video production, so students experience writing, shooting and editing right away. It then moves to short-form projects and in-depth explorations of lighting and sound, concluding with an exploration of documentaries, news, and other nonfiction forms. The final section is dedicated to advanced applications, including the process of creating long-form projects, the elements of directing, and strategies for effective marketing and distribution. The book concludes with a chapter exploring professional opportunities in production and options for further study. The book includes a Companion DVD with original demonstrations, clips from professional works, and interviews with film and video professionals Key Features: includes DVD, beneficial for the independent learner unique integration of theory and production techniques covers all the basics for writing, shooting, and editing videos Companion Website with materials for students and instructors: www.videoproductiontechniques.com. Reviews: "The modest title of this book doesn't begin to reflect the ambitious scope of its design. From heady aesthetic theories to an explanation of the LLP form, Video Production Techniques provides one-stop shopping for theory, production, and business. Students of media criticism and the media industry would benefit from this book as much as students of production. After twenty-five years of teaching, I learned a lot from reading it." – Robert Thompson, Director, Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, and Syracuse University "In the ever-evolving business of television and film, it's nice know that there is a source so accurately assembled, so dense with dynamic information, and at the end of the day, easy and enjoyable to read. Donald Diefenbach has put together an invaluable guide that I'm sure will be the bible for both young and experienced filmmakers alike." – Brett Weitz, Vice President, Fox21, division of 20th Century Fox Television I've been reading books that tell you how to make movies since the 1960s and this is far and away the best I've encountered. It covers every aspect of the film and video making process in a fresh, authoritative, readable and clear fashion. It doesn't forget the art of film while teaching the craft of it."– Ken Hanke, Film Critic, Author of Ken Russell’s Films, Charlie Chan at the Movies, and A Critical Guide to Horror Film Series




Testimonies of Resistance


Book Description

The Sonderkommando—the “special squad” of enslaved Jewish laborers who were forced to work in the gas chambers and crematoria of Auschwitz-Birkenau—comprise one of the most fascinating and troubling topics within Holocaust history. As eyewitnesses to and unwilling abettors of the murder of their fellow Jews, they are the object of fierce condemnation even today. Yet it was a group of these seemingly compromised men who carried out the revolt of October 7, 1944, one of the most celebrated acts of Holocaust resistance. This interdisciplinary collection assembles careful investigations into how the Sonderkommando have been represented—by themselves and by others—both during and after the Holocaust.




Ethics of the Algorithm


Book Description

How computational methods can expand how we see, read, and listen to Holocaust testimony The Holocaust is one of the most documented—and now digitized—events in human history. Institutions and archives hold hundreds of thousands of hours of audio and video testimony, composed of more than a billion words in dozens of languages, with millions of pieces of descriptive metadata. It would take several lifetimes to engage with these testimonies one at a time. Computational methods could be used to analyze an entire archive—but what are the ethical implications of “listening” to Holocaust testimonies by means of an algorithm? In this book, Todd Presner explores how the digital humanities can provide both new insights and humanizing perspectives for Holocaust memory and history. Presner suggests that it is possible to develop an “ethics of the algorithm” that mediates between the ethical demands of listening to individual testimonies and the interpretative possibilities of computational methods. He delves into thousands of testimonies and witness accounts, focusing on the analysis of trauma, language, voice, genre, and the archive itself. Tracing the affordances of digital tools that range from early, proto-computational approaches to more recent uses of automatic speech recognition and natural language processing, Presner introduces readers to what may be the ultimate expression of these methods: AI-driven testimonies that use machine learning to process responses to questions, offering a user experience that seems to replicate an actual conversation with a Holocaust survivor. With Ethics of the Algorithm, Presner presents a digital humanities argument for how big data models and computational methods can be used to preserve and perpetuate cultural memory.




Lessons and Legacies XIII


Book Description

Lessons and Legacies XIII: New Approaches to an Integrated History of the Holocaust is an edited collection of thirteen original essays that reflect current research on the Holocaust in a range of disciplines.




German-Jewish Life Writing in the Aftermath of the Holocaust


Book Description

Shows how Adler, Wander, Hilsenrath, and Klüger intertwine transgressive political criticism with the shadow of trauma, revealing new perspectives on canon formation and exclusion in postwar German literature. How did German-speaking Holocaust survivors pursue literary careers in an often-indifferent postwar society? How did their literary life writings reflect their postwar struggles? This monograph focuses on four authors who bore literary witness to the Shoah - H. G. Adler, Fred Wander, Edgar Hilsenrath, and Ruth Klüger. It analyzes their autofictional, critical, and autobiographical works written between the early 1950s and 2015, which depict their postwar experiences of writing, publishing, and publicizing Holocaust testimony. These case studies shed light on the devastating aftermaths of the Holocaust in different contexts. Adler depicts his attempts to overcome marginalization as a writer in Britain in the 1950s. Wander reflects on his failure to find a home either in postwar Austria or in the GDR. Hilsenrath satirizes his struggles as an emigrant to the US in the 1960s and after returning to Berlin in the 1980s. Finally, in her 2008 memoir, Ruth Klüger follows up her earlier, highly impactful memoir of the concentration camps by narrating the misogyny and antisemitism she experienced in US and German academia. Helen Finch analyzes how these under-researched texts intertwine transgressive political criticism with the shadow of trauma. Drawing on scholarship on Holocaust testimony, transnational memory, and affect theory, her book reveals new perspectives on canon formation and exclusion in postwar German literature.




StickySLIDES - Presentation Design Made Simple


Book Description

Your presentation reflects your professionalism. That's why it's crucial to create one that effectively communicates your message. Not creative? No problem! This book is written with non-designers in mind, drawing on the author's extensive experience and tried-and-tested methodology to help you organize your ideas into visual messages that are easy for your audience to understand. Using fundamental design principles and tools, we'll explore why a good slide works and a weak one fails. Throughout this book, you'll gain practical advice that you can apply immediately to enhance your presentations. The six key lessons in the StickySLIDES method include the following: - Structure the flow - Link the content - Illustrate the message - Draw the attention - Evaluate professionalism - Spark the excitement




Human Rights Museums


Book Description

Human Rights Museums presents case studies that trace how calls for historical and social justice, and the commensurate rise of a rights regime have led to the emergence of a new museological genre: the human rights museum. Presenting innovative field research conducted in new and emerging human rights museums across Asia and Latin America, the book adopts a broad museological approach. It does so by including national and community museums, as well as public and private museological initiatives, within its purview. Drawing on in-depth case studies about museums in Taiwan, Japan, Paraguay and Colombia – all discussed within their political and cultural contexts – the book examines the paradigmatic shift that has occurred within the museum field in the wake of the larger global transformations that have shaped contemporary geo-politics over the last 50 years. The diversity of geographical and political contexts, and the attention to lesser-known institutions within the canon of English museum studies literature, presents readers with a valuable opportunity to learn more about innovative museological models in non-English-speaking and non-Western contexts. Human Rights Museums will appeal to academics, scholars and students of museum studies and related disciplines, and to museum professionals seeking to know more about the diverse and evolving roles of museums in contemporary society.