Memory Traces: 1989 and the Question of German Cultural Identity

Arnold-de Simine, Silke (Ed.)

ISBN 10: 3039102974 / ISBN 13: 9783039102976

Published by Peter Lang, Bern, 2005

About this Item

Cultural History and Literary Imagination, Volume 5. Paperback with minor shelfwear and creases to leading edges of pages 73-80. Covers are unmarked, pages are clean, and the text is clear. TH.

Seller Inventory # 532026

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Memory Traces: 1989 and the Question of German Cultural Identity
• Publisher: Peter Lang, Bern
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3039102974
• ISBN 13: 9783039102976
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket
• Book Type: Used
• Seller catalogs:
  • Culture/Civilization/Society

About this title

Synopsis

This essay collection examines the dynamics of memory organization and the way it varies among different media and modes of discourse in post-unification Germany. German unification has put the post-war period into a historical perspective. Such a rupture raises questions concerning the appropriate commemoration, preservation and reinterpretation of the past. The processes of reorientation after unification influenced the self-perception of literary authors as well as the social role, position and status of German literature. They also affected the way writers viewed the competition in which they found themselves pitted against visual and electronic media as rival windows on the past. In the context of several debates on German literature during the 1990s the discussion revolved not only around the adequate aesthetic representation of the historical and cultural heritage but even more so around the role of literature itself in that process.
The contributions look at different discourses that were and still are concerned with reinterpreting and creating new collective symbols and narrative patterns in relation to Germany’s past. The volume focuses on the effects of the characteristic discourses of the press, literature and its different genres, film, the internet and memorials on the depiction and performance of memories.

About the Author

The Editor: Silke Arnold-de Simine is Assistant Professor of German at the University of Mannheim (Germany) where she teaches literature and film. She was educated at the Universities of Munich, Karlsruhe, Oxford and Mannheim. Between 2001-2003, she was DAAD Lektorin at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Her current research is on the organization of memory in the media of literature, film and institutions such as the museum in relation to German reunification.