Expand+GER10150 German History on Screen
Academic Year 2021/2022

This is an introductory module for students interested in German culture, history and film. It focuses on a number of key events and figures in German history of the twentieth century, exp...

Hide-GER10150 German History on Screen
Academic Year 2021/2022

This is an introductory module for students interested in German culture, history and film. It focuses on a number of key events and figures in German history of the twentieth century, exploring how they have been portrayed in recent popular German-language films. Films will be in German with English subtitles.

From the Holocaust to the fall of the Soviet Union and its satellite states, Germany was at the epicentre of global historical events throughout the twentieth century. Cultural memory plays an important role both in how a nation imagines itself and how others see it, and the legacies of various events, figures and regimes have been fiercely debated in Germany and beyond. It is clear that since the beginnings of early newsreel and the first moving pictures, films have been crucial not only in recording but also in shaping collective memories and the transmission of history. As the distance to historical events widens and witnesses die out, we become increasingly reliant upon archive materials and fictionalized representations of the past. This means that even though we may not have experienced an event at first hand, we may be very familiar with its sights and sounds. As scholars have argued, this reminds us that ‘history is a construction not a reflection’ (Rosenstone, 1995).

In this module, students will learn about historical events, figures and debates by carrying out independent research and listening to short expert talks, they will be introduced to theories of cultural memory and postmemory and they will acquire basic tools for film analysis.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this module students will:

• demonstrate sound knowledge of the historical events and figures covered in the module

• show a basic understanding of concepts such as cultural memory, postmemory and history as narrative construct

• demonstrate a basic understanding of key techniques in filmic narrative

• show an ability to critically analyse film treatments of historical events and figures, in English of an appropriate standard, both
orally and in writing

• show a basic awareness of ethical issues in representing historical events and people in fictional forms

Indicative Module Content:
This module will focus on selected German-language films (with English-language subtitles) covering historical figures and events including Hitler and the Third Reich, left-wing terrorism of the 1970s, East Germany and German unification, post-war cultural diversity and second and third-generation guest-workers.