JISCMail - GERMAN-STUDIES Archives

Colleagues working on contemporary German literature, generational narratives, films and memory politics may be interested in the following new publication:

Anne Fuchs
Phantoms of War in Contemporary German Literature, Films and Discourse: The Politics of Memory (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2008)
216x138 mm
9780230554054
09 Jan 2008
272 Pages
448
0230554059
£50.00

http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=280663

Content:
Fifteen years after unification contemporary German discourse is witnessing an upsurge of family stories about the long afterlife of the National Socialist era. Exploring this rediscovery of family origins and traditions, Phantoms of War in Contemporary German Literature, Films and Discourse examines and tests the fashionable concepts of generation and genealogy. The author develops an original theory of family narratives, a category situated at the intersection of public and private discourse. Asking why the disturbance of tradition remains an agitated topic, Fuchs offers in-depth interpretations of major works by established and newer authors. Offering a provocative contribution to German identity debates, these literary explorations are set in dialogue with films and museum discourse. In a field of study which is constantly moving, Phantoms of War in Contemporary German Literature, Films and Discourse charts a detailed topography of the changing politics of memory in today's Germany. This thought-provoking book is essential reading for students and scholars in various disciplines, ranging from German Literary and Historical Studies to Cultural Memory and Film Studies.

Author:
ANNE FUCHS is Professor of Modern German Literature and Culture at University College Dublin, Ireland. She is author of the acclaimed monograph Die Schmerzensspuren der Geschichte: Zur Poetik der Erinnerung in W. G. Sebalds Prosa (2004) and co-editor (with Mary Cosgrove and Georg Grote) of German Memory Contests (2006), winner of the "outstanding academic title" award by CHOICE, current reviews for academic libraries.