Aftershocks of the New

Patrice Petro teaches film studies in the English department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she is also the director of the Center for International Education. She is the author of Joyless Streets: Women and Melodramatic Representation in Weimar Germany, and the editor of Fugitive Images: From Photography to Video.

In this vibrant collection of essays, Patrice Petro draws on her capacious understanding of feminist theory and German film theory to articulate what is, was, and should be at stake in our interpretive practices. Whether analyzing the disorienting photomontages of Hannah H÷ch, the disturbing portraits of Otto Dix, or the charged performance of Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus, Petro remains firmly in command of historical contexts, theoretical implications, and ideological consequences. - Maria Tatar (author of Lustmord: Sexual Murder in Weimar Germany) Patrice PetroÆs Aftershocks of the New is unified by a focus on the connection between feminist film criticism and historical research. It also invokes a history of the film studies discipline (including television) as she rehearses and comments upon some of the major debates in the field over the past two decades. - Lucy Fischer (director of the film studies program, University of Pittsburgh)

• IntroductionThe "place" of television in film studiesFeminism and film historyGerman film theory and Anglo-American film studiesAfter shock, between boredom and historyHistorical ennui, feminist boredomWorld weariness, Weimar women, and visual cultureNazi cinema at the intersection of the classical and the popularThe Hottentot and the Blonde VenusFilm feminism and nostalgia for the seventies