STALINKA

[Daniel Rancour-Laferriere]

26 September 2005

Dear Alina,

You are absolutely right.  But, in addition, "Life is Beautiful" is a 
work of art, and artistic license is at least theoretically possible.  I 
know many Jews who found the film unobjectionable, but I do understand 
that actual concentration camp survivors and those close to them find it 
horrifying.

As for "Stalinka," however, it claims to be an educational site, not a 
work of art.  Artistic license is therefore completely inappropriate, 
and the name should be changed to something scholarly, solid, and neutral.

Of course there are postmodernist scholars who think that such language 
play is ok even in educational and scholarly contexts.  Maybe so, but 
not when the play is at the psychological expense of Stalin's victims 
and those close to the victims.

So, I am still waiting for 1) an apology, and 2) a new name from those 
who constructed the "Stalinka" site.

Regards to the list,

Daniel Rancour-Laferriere
Emeritus Professor of Russian
UC Davis


Alina Israeli wrote:

>>Other attempts to do this with the Nazi period
>>- things like Life is Beautiful
>>    
>>
>
>Which was not seen too kindly by Auschwitz survivors and Nazi hunters as
>was demonstrated by panel discussions last year during the time of
>commemoration.
>
>__________________________
> Alina Israeli
> LFS, American University
> 4400 Mass. Ave., NW
> Washington, DC 20016
>
> phone:    (202) 885-2387
> fax:      (202) 885-1076 
>
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