Filmic Representations of the Third Reich and the Holocaust

University of Texas at Austin

Abstracts Due: February 13, 2006
Conference Date: March 30, 2006

In conjunction with the First German Studies Workshop, the graduate students of the departments of Germanic Studies and History at the University of Texas at Austin are pleased to announce our annual graduate conference. This event provides a forum for students working in German film about the Third Reich and the Holocaust. Graduate students of all disciplines are encouraged to apply, and, furthermore, to participate in the First German Studies Workshop (March 31 – April 1), where they will have the opportunity to discuss their work with leading scholars in the field.

With the recent release of Der Untergang, Der neunte Tag, and Napola, a new phase in the process of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coming to terms with the past) has begun. Some refer to this phase as a normalization (or banalization) of German history. Others see it as part of larger trends in a contemporary film and media culture obsessed with virtual histories and nostalgic reconstructions. And yet others see close connections between the recent wave of Nazi heritage films and the public culture of commemoration, memorialization, and historicization in the New Berlin Republic. Sixty years after the release of Die Mörder sind unter uns, we propose to revisit the various political frameworks, institutional contexts, cultural movements, and historiographical debates and to take stock of the changing narrative, visual, and generic conventions that have defined the filmic confrontation with the Third Reich and the Holocaust since 1946. Topics to be discussed during the workshop include: the rubble film and the cinema of reconstruction; antifascism in the DEFA film, Holocaust documentaries made in Germany; German-Jewish encounters and reconciliations; feminist perspectives and women’s stories; post-unification and the return of genre cinema; documentary and avant-garde traditions; nostalgia and the heritage film; the Third Reich as cinematic spectacle and media event. Presentations on documentary films and television plays are particularly welcome.

Please send abstracts to Bradley Boovy bboovy@mail.utexas.edu or Lee Holt leeholt@mail.utexas.edu no later than February 13, 2006. Limited travel funds are available for qualified submitters.