Description
Book SynopsisExamines the heightened role of politics in contemporary German and Austrian cultural productions and institutions and what it means for German Studies. As debates about Europe, migration, resurgent nationalism, and neoliberalism intensify in Germany and Austria, politics has gained particular prominence in cultural production and cultural institutions. How does this development affect German Studies as a discipline and a practice? Volume 14 of Edinburgh German Yearbook examines political or politicized aspects of contemporary life that have become increasingly significant for culture today. The contributions gathered here offer engaging readings of contemporary literary texts (including work by Saša Stanišić, Anke Stelling, and Timur Vermes), films (by Fatih Akın, Ruth Beckermann, and Andreas Dresen), and other forms of cultural intervention (the polemics of Max Czollek and Oliver Polak, and the activism of the left-feminist group Burschenschaft Hysteria). These encourage us to consider how communities are being (re)shaped by current political and social crises, antagonisms around memory cultures, questions of European identity, as well as challenges to the status of an assumed Leitkultur and the discourse of integration.
Trade Review[E]leven varied, lively, and often controversial essays . . . . This collection . . . should do an admirable job of informing readers and stimulating further exploration of recent cultural and political developments in Germany and Austria. -- Pamela S. Saur * JOURNAL OF AUSTRIAN STUDIES *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Frauke Matthes, Dora Osborne, and Katya Krylova Writing the European Refugee Crisis: Timur Vermes' Die Hungrigen und die Satten (2018) Linda Shortt Pluralized Selves and the Postmigrant Sublime: Isolde Charim's Ich und die Anderen (2018) and Wolfgang Fischer's STYX (2018) Teresa Ludden "Never an innocent game": The Center for Political Beauty and "Search for us!" Mary Cosgrove Irreconcilable Differences: The Politics of Bad Feelings in Contemporary German Jewish Culture Maria Roca Lizarazu Geography, Identity, and Politics in Saša Stanišić's Vor dem Fest (2014) Myrto Aspioti Precarious Narration in Anke Stelling's Schäfchen im Trockenen (2018) Stephanie Gleißner Limited Editions: Politics of Liveness at the Berliner Theatertreffen, 2017-19 Katie Hawthorne The Akın Effect: Fatih Akın's Cultural-Symbolic Capital and the Postmigrant Theater Lizzie Stewart Goodbye, Sonnenallee, Or How Gundermann (2018) Got Lost in the Cinema of Others Evelyn Preuss Ruth Beckermann's Reckoning with Kurt Waldheim: Unzugehörig: Österreicher und Juden nach 1945 (1989) and Waldheims Walzer (2018) Joseph W. Moser Burschenschaft Hysteria: Exposing Nationalist Gender Roles in Contemporary Austrian Politics Regine Klimpfinger and Elisabeth Koenigshofe Notes on the Contributors
