Towards a European Postmigrant Aesthetics: Christian Petzold’s Transit (2018), Phoenix (2014), and Jerichow (2008)
TRANSIT Vol. 13, No. 1 Jennifer Ruth Hosek Download PDF Abstract A contested polity and an imagined community, Europe is confronting a myriad of political, economic, and climatic shifts. Ethnographer Regina Römhild has recently argued that understanding Europe as homogeneous and clearly demarcated inaccurately conjures a truncated White entity quite distinct from that which its […]
Precarious Intimacies: Narratives of Non-Arrival in a Changing Europe
TRANSIT vol. 11, no. 2 by Maria Stehle and Beverly Weber Download PDF Abstract The representation of intimacy in depictions of immigration exists alongside histories of deeply racist contacts and connections. Yet intimate connection may also produce moments of joy, sustaining solidarity and resistance to violent forms of exclusion. In this essay, we develop the […]
The Future of the Distant Past: On Teaching the Pre-modern History of Africans in Europe
TRANSIT vol. 10, no. 2 Kristin Kopp Download PDF Abstract In this article, the author argues that the field of German Studies is poised to contribute to both Black Studies and Critical Race Studies through teaching the history of the African diaspora in Europe in the pre-modern era. One promising future direction German Studies might […]
Film Review: Am Rand der Städte (On the Outskirts)
Posted in conjunction with the course Multicultural Germany in fall semester 2015. Author: Angel (Jingwei) Li Am Rand der Städte (On the Outskirts) Film Production Studio: Harun Farocki Filmproduktion Running Time: 83 min DVD Release Year: 2007 Director: Aysun Bademsoy Writer: Aysun Bademsoy -Alone but not lonely. The documentary is a compilation of individual interviews […]
Film Review: The Swissmakers (Die Schweizermacher)
Posted in conjunction with the course Multicultural Germany in fall semester 2015. Author: Karla Palos The 1978 film Die Schweizermacher (The Swissmakers) is a good cop/bad cop comedy directed by Rolf Lyssy which dramatizes the bureaucratic exchanges between immigration officials and immigrants applying for Swiss citizenship. The film focuses on two officials: Walo Lüönd, who plays […]
Film Review: Fack ju Göhte (Suck Me Shakespeer)
Posted in conjunction with the course Multicultural Germany in fall semester 2015. Author: Jasmine Giang Fack ju Göhte (Suck Me Shakespeer) is a 2013 German screwball/romantic comedy, directed by Turkish-German director Bora Dağtekin. It proved to be one of the most commercially successful German films of the decade, placing second in gross income in the 2013 German […]
Book Review: Along a Dangerous Road
Posted in conjunction with the course Multicultural Germany in fall semester 2015. Author: Evelyn Roth Along a Dangerous Road – “Der Schlaf in der Ténéré hinterlässt eine unzerstörbare Spur im Körper. Eine Erinnerung für das ganze Leben“ (Sleeping in the Ténéré leaves its mark within one’s body. A memory that will last a life time)”[1]. The same thing can […]
Multicultural Germany Course: Week 6 Summary (Oct. 5 & 7)
Migration brings both culture and religion. This week in our course we focused on religion and secularism, acknowledging the complexity of the terms in context of past and current migrations related to Germany. Our discussion found its beginnings in questions such as: Does religion form part of collective memory? Which conflicts arise around differing religious […]
Multicultural Germany Course: Summary of the First Two Weeks
To summarize the first two weeks of the seminar “Multicultural Germany” (fall 2015) it is best to start off with the participants: One third of the class is exchange students, mostly from Germany. Due to this the class can benefit from the insights and background information these students bring to the table. Another bonus is […]
Multicultural Germany Course, Fall Semester 2015
This course addresses questions of mobility and borders in our increasingly connected and disjointed world. We will approach the history of post-World War II Germany through the lens of migration, reading a variety of texts critically and relating them to broader questions of economic and cultural globalization: the long term consequences of “guest worker” recruitment; […]