After the Dresden Bombing Pathways of Memory, 1945 to the Present

by Fuchs, Anne

• ISBN13: 9780230285811
• ISBN10: 0230285813
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-12-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Anne Fuchs traces the aftermath of the Dresden bombing in the collective imagination from 1945 to today. As a case study of an event that gained local, national and global iconicity, the book investigates the role of photography, fine art, architecture, literature and film in dialogue with the changing German socio-political landscape.

Author Biography

Anne Fuchs is Professor of German at St Andrews University, UK. Prior to 2011, she was Professor of German Literature and Culture at University College Dublin, Ireland. Her publications include 'Die Schmerzensspuren der Geschichte'-zur Poetik der Erinnerung in W. G. Sebalds Prosa (2004); Phantoms of War in Contemporary German Literature, Films and Discourse: The Politics of Memory (2008,2nd ed. 2010); German Memory Contests: The Quest for Identity in Literature, Film and Discourse since 1990, eds Anne Fuchs, Mary Cosgrove and Georg Grote (2006,2nd ed. 2010) and Debating German Cultural Identity 1989-2009, eds Anne Fuchs, Kathleen James-Chakraborty and Linda Shortt (2011).

Table of Contents

"In this far-reaching, provocative and always illuminating book, Anne Fuchs explores how representations of Allied bombing made Dresden into a global icon that was at once tendentious and exhortative. 'Dresden 1945' resisted both political reflection by suppressing human agency and ideological instrumentalization by producing excessive nostalgia. Fuchs' great contribution is to show how the terrible destruction of World War II created the compelling effects of 'the aftermath of history' in our time." - Peter Fritzsche, University of Illinois"In this fascinating book, two things come together in a rare combination: an exemplary historical site with the weight of global iconicity and a paradigmatic case study that in its broad range of perspectives and approaches sets new standards for cultural memory studies." - Aleida Assmann, University of Constance, Germany
"Anne Fuchs has produced a book of great sensitivity on the cultural memory of the destruction of Dresden. She traces those cultural templates that were used, reused, modified and replaced in an attempt to come to terms with an event which, ultimately, eluded representation or containment. Her interdisciplinary study provides an original, insightful and poignant narratology of traumatic memory." - Bill Niven, Nottingham Trent University, UK