Dauerglotzen: Streaming German TV and Film in German Studies

Charles Vannette Announcement
Subject Fields
German History / Studies, Languages, Film and Film History

Call for papers for NeMLA 2022 (March 10-13, 2022 in Baltimore, MD)

Panel: Dauerglotzen: Streaming German TV and Film in German Studies

The growth of media streaming sites has granted German films and, in particular, television shows far greater access to international audiences than they have previously enjoyed. Historical dramas like Babylon Berlin and the Deutschland 83-series offer dramatized re-evaluations of tumultuous pasts that are received differently at home and abroad. German dystopia appears in Tribes of Europa and again in Barbaren – tales set two millennia apart that seem somehow to overlap. And crime documentaries investigate the troubled underbelly of the very recent past.

Thanks to sites like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, we’re able to enjoy German TV of an incredibly high production value for the first time. But is it only about good storytelling and glossy exteriors? How do we read the exportation of politically engaged shows? Is history being reified by Babelsberg, or are these genuine discussions? What is the reception of these shows at home and abroad? How, if at all, do these shows shape the image of Germans abroad? How do we incorporate these shows into our teaching and into our lessons? And what is up with Dark?

This panel invites discussions of recent German television. In particular, it is interested in shows that are available to stream internationally, and how – if at all – this new media is helping to shape German Studies. The primary sites of interest are Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and DW but other international outlets and shows are welcome. Papers may include but are not limited to reception, pedagogy, the relationship between the German past and market capitalism, or hermeneutic approaches to the shows themselves.

Please upload your abstract directly to the NeMLA website (NeMLA membership NOT required to submit abstracts but you must create a profile): https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/Login

Abstracts must be submitted by September 30, 2021

Contact Email
charles.vannette@unh.edu