Imagining Blackness in Germany and Austria

Imagining Blackness in Germany and Austria PDF Author: Sabrina K. Rahman
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527551156
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
Imagining Blackness in Germany and Austria offers a breadth of fresh and provocative perspectives on the ways that blackness has been configured and instrumentalized in cultural productions from around the modern German-speaking world. The essays collected here examine material ranging from eighteenth-century literary and philosophical landmarks, to Viennese modernist art; from colonial missionary literature, to twentieth-century sculpture, film, and music; from National Socialist ideology, to Leftist counterdiscourse. Spanning a range of literary, visual, and theoretical discourses, these essays identify crucial moments within radical paradigm shifts in the ways the concept of blackness has been employed by European intellectuals. One shift can be observed within the notion of blackness itself, which progresses from a state that precedes political articulation, to one that is negotiated discursively. Another shift sees conservative notions of “race” give way to a recodification of blackness as American rather than African. In this way, blackness becomes linked to the advent of a hegemonic power. A further shift can be discerned in the ways nationalist discourses of colonial supremacy and of an impending “darkening” of Europe progress toward the perception of blackness as an entry-point into the cultural complex known as Amerika, into mass culture, and into European modernity itself. With an introduction by Werner Sollors, this collection provides valuable, compelling, and timely material and insight for scholars and students interested in modern German-speaking culture, African American and African Diaspora studies, and their intersections.

Imagining Blackness in Germany and Austria

Imagining Blackness in Germany and Austria PDF Author: Sabrina K. Rahman
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527551156
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 198

Get Book Here

Book Description
Imagining Blackness in Germany and Austria offers a breadth of fresh and provocative perspectives on the ways that blackness has been configured and instrumentalized in cultural productions from around the modern German-speaking world. The essays collected here examine material ranging from eighteenth-century literary and philosophical landmarks, to Viennese modernist art; from colonial missionary literature, to twentieth-century sculpture, film, and music; from National Socialist ideology, to Leftist counterdiscourse. Spanning a range of literary, visual, and theoretical discourses, these essays identify crucial moments within radical paradigm shifts in the ways the concept of blackness has been employed by European intellectuals. One shift can be observed within the notion of blackness itself, which progresses from a state that precedes political articulation, to one that is negotiated discursively. Another shift sees conservative notions of “race” give way to a recodification of blackness as American rather than African. In this way, blackness becomes linked to the advent of a hegemonic power. A further shift can be discerned in the ways nationalist discourses of colonial supremacy and of an impending “darkening” of Europe progress toward the perception of blackness as an entry-point into the cultural complex known as Amerika, into mass culture, and into European modernity itself. With an introduction by Werner Sollors, this collection provides valuable, compelling, and timely material and insight for scholars and students interested in modern German-speaking culture, African American and African Diaspora studies, and their intersections.

Imagining a Greater Germany

Imagining a Greater Germany PDF Author: Erin R. Hochman
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501706616
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
In Imagining a Greater Germany, Erin R. Hochman offers a fresh approach to the questions of state- and nation-building in interwar Central Europe. Ever since Hitler annexed his native Austria to Germany in 1938, the term "Anschluss" has been linked to Nazi expansionism. The legacy of Nazism has cast a long shadow not only over the idea of the union of German-speaking lands but also over German nationalism in general. Due to the horrors unleashed by the Third Reich, German nationalism has seemed virulently exclusionary, and Anschluss inherently antidemocratic.However, as Hochman makes clear, nationalism and the desire to redraw Germany's boundaries were not solely the prerogatives of the political right. Focusing on the supporters of the embattled Weimar and First Austrian Republics, she argues that support for an Anschluss and belief in the großdeutsch idea (the historical notion that Germany should include Austria) were central to republicans’ persistent attempts to legitimize democracy. With appeals to a großdeutsch tradition, republicans fiercely contested their opponents’ claims that democracy and Germany, socialism and nationalism, Jew and German, were mutually exclusive categories. They aimed at nothing less than creating their own form of nationalism, one that stood in direct opposition to the destructive visions of the political right. By challenging the oft-cited distinction between "good" civic and "bad" ethnic nationalisms and drawing attention to the energetic efforts of republicans to create a cross-border partnership to defend democracy, Hochman emphasizes that the triumph of Nazi ideas about nationalism and politics was far from inevitable.

Rethinking Black German Studies

Rethinking Black German Studies PDF Author: Tiffany Florvil
Publisher: Imagining Black Europe
ISBN: 9781800799813
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This volume assesses the current field of Black German Studies by exploring how periods of recent German history inform the present and future of the interdisciplinary field. The experiences of present generations of Black Germans, the construction and reimagining of race, and the opportunities for counter-narratives are considered.

Black Vienna

Black Vienna PDF Author: Janek Wasserman
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801455227
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Interwar Vienna was considered a bastion of radical socialist thought, and its reputation as "Red Vienna" has loomed large in both the popular imagination and the historiography of Central Europe. However, as Janek Wasserman shows in this book, a “Black Vienna” existed as well; its members voiced critiques of the postwar democratic order, Jewish inclusion, and Enlightenment values, providing a theoretical foundation for Austrian and Central European fascist movements. Looking at the complex interplay between intellectuals, the public, and the state, he argues that seemingly apolitical Viennese intellectuals, especially conservative ones, dramatically affected the course of Austrian history. While Red Viennese intellectuals mounted an impressive challenge in cultural and intellectual forums throughout the city, radical conservatism carried the day. Black Viennese intellectuals hastened the destruction of the First Republic, facilitating the establishment of the Austrofascist state and paving the way for Anschluss with Nazi Germany. Closely observing the works and actions of Viennese reformers, journalists, philosophers, and scientists, Wasserman traces intellectual, social, and political developments in the Austrian First Republic while highlighting intellectuals' participation in the growing worldwide conflict between socialism, conservatism, and fascism. Vienna was a microcosm of larger developments in Europe—the rise of the radical right and the struggle between competing ideological visions. By focusing on the evolution of Austrian conservatism, Wasserman complicates post–World War II narratives about Austrian anti-fascism and Austrian victimhood.

The Blue Stain

The Blue Stain PDF Author: Hugo Bettauer
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1571139826
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
A European novel of racial mixing and "passing" in early twentieth-century America that serves as a unique account of transnational and transcultural racial attitudes that continue to reverberate today.

Destined to Witness

Destined to Witness PDF Author: Hans Massaquoi
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061856606
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 742

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Book Description
This “extraordinary” memoir of a black man’s coming of age in Nazi Germany is “an entirely engaging story of accomplishment despite adversity.” —Washington Post Book World In Destined to Witness, Hans Massaquoi has crafted a beautifully rendered memoir—an astonishing true tale of growing up black in Nazi Germany. The son of a prominent African and a German nurse, Hans remained behind with his mother when Hitler came to power, after his father returned to Liberia. Like other German boys, Hans went to school; like other German boys, he swiftly fell under the Fuhrer’s spell. So he was crushed to learn that, as a black child, he was ineligible for the Hitler Youth. His path to a secondary education and an eventual profession was blocked. He now lived in fear that, at any moment, he might hear the Gestapo banging on the door—or Allied bombs falling on his home. Ironic, moving, and deeply human, Massaquoi’s account of this lonely struggle for survival brims with courage and intelligence. “A cry against racism, a survivor’s tale, a wartime adventure, a coming of age story, and a powerful tribute to a mother’s love.”—New Orleans Times-Picayune “An incredible tale . . . Exceptional.” —Chicago Sun Times “Destined to Witness examines a roller coaster of racism from different cultures and continents.” —The New York Times Book Review “Here is a story rarely lived and even more rarely told. We need this book for a balanced picture of the Holocaust.” —Maya Angelou “A nuanced, startling memoir.” —Kirkus Reviews “An engaging story of a young man’s journey through hate, self-enlightenment, intrigue and romance.” —Ebony

Erasures and Eradications in Modern Viennese Art, Architecture and Design

Erasures and Eradications in Modern Viennese Art, Architecture and Design PDF Author: Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000646068
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
Erasures and Eradications in Modern Viennese Art, Architecture and Design challenges the received narrative on the artists, exhibitions, and interpretations of Viennese Modernism. The book centers on three main erasures—the erasure of Jewish artists and critics; erasures relating to gender and sexual identification; and erasures of other marginalized figures and movements. Restoring missing elements to the story of the visual arts in early twentieth-century Vienna, authors investigate issues of gender, race, ethnic and sexual identity, and political affiliation. Both well-studied artists and organizations—such as the Secession and the Austrian Werkbund, and iconic figures such as Klimt and Hoffmann—are explored, as are lesser known figures and movements. The book’s thought-provoking chapters expand the chronological contours and canon of artists surrounding Viennese Modernism to offer original, nuanced, and rich readings of individual works, while offering a more diverse portrait of the period from 1890, through World War II and into the present. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, history, design history, architectural history, and European studies.

Against Race

Against Race PDF Author: Paul Gilroy
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674000964
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
He argues that the triumph of the image spells death to politics and reduces people to mere symbols."--BOOK JACKET.

Imagining the Nation in Nature

Imagining the Nation in Nature PDF Author: Thomas M. Lekan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Landscape protection
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description


Passing Illusions

Passing Illusions PDF Author: Kerry Wallach
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472123009
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
Weimar Germany (1919–33) was an era of equal rights for women and minorities, but also of growing antisemitism and hostility toward the Jewish population. This led some Jews to want to pass or be perceived as non-Jews; yet there were still occasions when it was beneficial to be openly Jewish. Being visible as a Jew often involved appearing simultaneously non-Jewish and Jewish. Passing Illusions examines the constructs of German-Jewish visibility during the Weimar Republic and explores the controversial aspects of this identity—and the complex reasons many decided to conceal or reveal themselves as Jewish. Focusing on racial stereotypes, Kerry Wallach outlines the key elements of visibility, invisibility, and the ways Jewishness was detected and presented through a broad selection of historical sources including periodicals, personal memoirs, and archival documents, as well as cultural texts including works of fiction, anecdotes, images, advertisements, performances, and films. Twenty black-and-white illustrations (photographs, works of art, cartoons, advertisements, film stills) complement the book’s analysis of visual culture.