German pop culture : how "American" is it? / edited by Agnes C. Mueller.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Mueller, Agnes C., 1968-

Series:

Social history, popular culture, and politics in Germany

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular culture--Germany--History--20th century.

Popular culture.

Germany.

History.

Germany--Civilization--American influences.

Civilization.

Germany--Social life and customs--20th century.

Manners and customs.

Physical Description:

viii, 236 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2004]

Summary:

German Pop Culture sheds new light on the "Americanization" of German culture during the latter part of the 20th century, with special emphasis on post-Unification literature, music, and film. America and its iconography have been instrumental in defining German political and aesthetic culture, especially since World War II, and most recently in the aftermath of September 11. Surrounding this indisputable phenomena, questions of the role and place of a "popular" German culture continue to trigger heated debate. Embraced by some as a welcome means to break out of the German monocultural mind-set, American-shaped "pop" culture is rejected by others as "polluting" established values, leveling necessary differentiation, and ultimately being driven by a capitalist consumer society rather than by moral or aesthetic standards. This collaborative volume addresses a number of intriguing questions: What do Germans envisage when they speak of the "Americanization" of their literature and music? How do artists respond to today's media culture? What does this mean for the current political dimension of German-American relations? Can one speak meaningfully of an "Americanized" German culture? In addressing these and other questions, this work fills a gap in existing scholarship by investigating German popular culture from a multidisciplinary, international perspective.

Contents:

Part 1. Approaches to Americanization, Globalization, and Hybrid German Identities

The Americanization of German Culture? The Strange, Paradoxical Ways of Modernity / Winfried Fluck 19

Mixing High and Popular Culture: The Impact of the Communication Revolution / Frank Trommler 40

How American Was It? Popular Culture from Weimar to Hitler / Thomas J. Saunders 52

Constructing Femininity in the Early Cold War Era / Sara Lennox 66

Part 2. Gender, Race, and Marginal Identities in Pop Music and Literature

Searching for Proper New Music: Jazz in Cold War Germany / Uta G. Poiger 83

Hip-Hop Made in Germany: From Old School to the Kanaksta Movement / Sabine von Dirke 96

"In Case of Misunderstandig, Read On!": Pop as Translation / Eckhard Schumacher 113

Part 3. German Writers Today: Literature in the Age of Pop

The American Dead End of German Literature / Matthias Politycki 133

Myself as Text (Extended Version) / Thomas Meinecke 141

Part 4. Local Stories in Global Idioms: German Cinema at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century

Popular Cinema, National Cinema, and European Integration / Marc Silberman 151

Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run and the Usual Suspects: The Avant-Garde, Popular Culture, and History / Barbara Kosta 165

Hollywood in Altona: Minority Cinema and the Transnational Imagination / Gerd Gemunden 180

"Amerika gibt's uberhaupt nicht": Notes on the German Heritage Film / Lutz Koepnick 191.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-226) and index.

ISBN:

0472113844

OCLC:

53458998