Representing East Germany Since Unification: From Colonization to Nostalgia

ISBN-13: 9781845201890 / Angielski / Miękka / 2005 / 256 str.

Paul Cooke

Opis

When the Berlin Wall came down and the two Germanies were reunited, culture was held up to be one of the keys to national unity. Ironically, however, it is the realm of culture that most clearly demonstrates the continued divisions between east and west. Taking culture as broadly defined, this book examines state memorialization, literature, television, film, and the internet, to map out the problematic path of German national identity as it struggles to deal with the legacy of division. Drawing on postcolonial theory, the author argues that the east has been defined as the west's "exotic other" and shows how this stereotype has been vigorously challenged. Cooke also discusses the growing phenomenon of nostalgia for East Germany, as evident in the recent international hit film Good Bye, Lenin

Recenzje

Paul Cooke's stimulating study of post-unification German culture illuminates the interrelationship between literature, film, television and the internet as communicative forms. It shows how the changing representation of East Germany, viewed both as an historical reality and a 'discursive space', has become a key indicator of Germany's progress towards the elusive goal of inner unity. Dennis Tate, Professor of German Studies, University of Bath

Spis treści

Postcolonial Studies, Colonization and East Germany * The Federal Republic's 'Orient'? Dealing Officially with the GDR * 'Writing Back': Dealing with the Stasi in Literature * Productive Hybridity: Nostalgia and the GDR on Film * Re-exoticising the Normal: the Ostalgie Industry and German Television * A Postcolonial Culture? Surfing for the GDR in Cyberspace

O autorze

Paul Cooke is Senior Lecturer in German Studies at the University Leeds.