Arts of Democratization

Styling Political Sensibilities in Postwar West Germany

AvJennifer M. Kapczynski,Caroline Kita

Inbunden, Engelska, 2022

Del i serien Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany

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Beskrivning

Scholars of democracy long looked to the Federal Republic of Germany as a notable “success story,” a model for how to transition from a violent, authoritarian regime to a peaceable nation of rights. Although this account has been contested since its inception, the narrative has proved resilient—and it is no surprise that the current moment of crisis that Western democracies are experiencing has provoked new interest in how democracies come to be. The Arts of Democratization: Styling Political Sensibilities in Postwar West Germany casts a fresh look at the early years of this fledgling democracy and draws attention to the broad range of ways democracy and the democratic subject were conceived and rendered at this time.These essays highlight the contradictory and competing impulses that ran through the project to democratize postwar society and cast a critical eye toward the internal biases that shaped the model of Western democracy. In so doing, the contributions probe critical questions that we continue to grapple with today. How did postwar thinkers understand what it meant to be democratic? Did they conceive of democratic subjectivity in terms of acts of participation, a set of beliefs or principles, or perhaps in terms of particular feelings or emotions? How did the work to define democracy and its subjects deploy notions of nation, race, and gender or sexuality? As this book demonstrates, the case of West Germany offers compelling ways to think more broadly about the emergence of democracy. The Arts of Democratization offers lessons that resonate with the current moment as we consider what interventions may be necessary to resuscitate democracy today.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2022-02-07
Mått:152 x 229 x undefined mm
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany
Antal sidor:278
Förlag:The University of Michigan Press
ISBN:9780472132911

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Mer om författaren

Jennifer M. Kapczynski is a psychotherapist in private practice in Berkeley, CA and former Associate Professor of German and Film & Media Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.Caroline A. Kita is Associate Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis.

Recensioner i media

The volume represents an exciting selection of case studies and micro-histories that privilege not the large-scale, grand historical vistas of diplomatic history or individual politicians, but the lesser-known (though no less important) matters of radio plays, amateur theater, public discussion fora, book publishing, etc. This emphasis on the 'minor' moments within the life of democracy reveals new dimensions of late 1940s and 1950s West Germany.

Innehållsförteckning

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction. Jennifer M. Kapczynski and Caroline A. KitaChapter 1. Imperiled Democracies: History and the Legacy of the Weimar Republic for the 21st CenturyKathleen CanningChapter 2. Intellectuals and the People: Conversation Forums and West German Democracy in the 1950sSean A. FornerChapter 3. Listening Towards Democracy: Axel Eggebrecht and the Postwar Radio PlayCaroline A. KitaChapter 4. Amateur DemocratsJennifer M. KapczynskiChapter 5. No Country for Old Minds: The Psychology of West Germany’s DemocratizationAnthony D. KaudersChapter 6. Democratic Reeducation: Hermann Broch’s Reflections on Postwar GermanyPaul Michael LützelerChapter 7. Learning to Read Again: Thomas Mann, the U.S. Army’s POW Reeducation Efforts, and the Role of Literature in a Democratic GermanyTobias BoesChapter 8. First Comes the Feeding, Then Comes the Democratization: Food, Hunger, and Democracy in the early FRGAlice WeinrebChapter 9. Ruth Woodsmall, US Women’s Affairs and Democratic Practice in the Early Federal Republic of GermanyDarcy BuerkleChapter 10. Redemptive Whiteness: Racism and Democratization, or Figurations of Germanness in 1950s West German CinemaMaja FiggeChapter 11. Foundational Narratives: West German Nation-Building Through State-Sponsored PR Films, 1953-1963Jan UelzmannChapter 12. “A Memory Goes to Work”: The Visual Promise of the Marshall PlanFrank Mehring