Nostalgia After Nazism

"Through the lens of nostalgia, this book traces confrontations with history and home in post-fascist German and Austrian literature and film. These works often enact a repetition compulsion of the critique of Nazism via a focus on the tainted spaces of family, home, and nation. A nostalgic longing for the damaged home is possible only in an alienated form, and many contemporary German-language authors and filmmakers represent scenes of departure from the entrapping space of home to other countries. Hence, Nostalgia After Nazism also outlines a shift from the aesthetic project of historical critique to instances of transnational nostalgia that combine a critique of recent history with a global concept of home. Through an analysis of the historical affect of nostalgia, this book offers a unique route of access to the conflicted emotions of loss and alienation that characterize contemporary Germany and Austria." "Nostalgia After Nazism engages scholarship in the fields of literary and film studies, philosophy, gender studies, and globalization studies. It takes part in current discussions about cultural particularities and local and national nostalgias by focusing on the anomalous cases of Germany and Austria. It provides novel readings of works by canonized and important new German and Austrian authors and directors, juxtaposing these readings with interpretations of comparable Anglo-American texts. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in German and Austrian Studies, European Studies, comparative literary and cultural studies, cinema studies, Holocaust studies, and gender studies, as well as to those working on modernity/postmodernity, globalization, and contemporary notions of temporality and affect."--BOOK JACKET.