Heimat - A German Dream
Regional Loyalties and National Identity in German Culture 1890-1990
by Elizabeth Boa and Rachel Palfreyman
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Book Presentation:
• A examination of contemporary German culture: literature, film, history, and politics
The discourse of Heimat, meaning homeland or roots, has been a medium of debate on German identity between region and nation for at least a century. Four phases parallel Germany's discontinuous history: Heimat literature as a response to modernization and to regional tensions before the First World War; the inter-war period when Heimat divided into racist ideology, left-wing opposition, and inner resistance to the Third Reich; a post-war dialectic between escapist 1950s Heimat films and right-wing claims to the lost lands in the East to which anti-Heimat theatre and films in the 1960s and 1970s were a response, with the urban Heimat in GDR films adding a socialist twist; regionalism and green politics in the 1980s and German identity beyond Cold War divisions. A key point of reference in current debates on German history, Heimat looks likely to continue in postmodern and multicultural mode.
About the authors:
Elizabeth Boa, Professor of German, University of Nottingham, and Rachel Palfreyman, Lecturer in German, University of Nottingham
Press Reviews:
"Boa and Palfreyman supply a rich and varied fare ... handsomely produced, with good illustrations." - Modern Language Review
"What this study achieves, above all else, is to underscore the constant yearning of the German psyche for a potent and cohesive identity, compelling us to ponder not only the cultural accomplishments this has inspired, but also the afflictions it has, in no small part, brought upon the nation" - Forum for Modern Language Studies
See the publisher website: Oxford University Press
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