In this seminar, we work on different narratives about and representations of what is imagined – in different times and under different (political, social, economic) circumstances – as ‘Germany’. Therefore, we won’t concentrate on a certain narrative about what Germany is and what it was in the past but rather we try to explore different narratives and representations about what ‘Germany’ supposedly is and gain a deeper understanding about it. With different cultural studies perspectives we explore what and who is represented by whom as ‘German(y)’, who and what is excluded by the narrations, what the specific circumstances for specific narratives are and which counter-narratives can be found.
The aim of the seminar is not to study what is called ‘Germany’ or ‘Europe’ but to learn and explore methodological and theoretical perspectives and tools to explore different cultural contexts, their (multiple) self-imaginations, how they are constructed in different narratives and representations, and which functions these imaginations have for the construction of the contexts.
In the context of this seminar, we do a joint study trip and independent field explorations to explore different narratives and representations about Germany’s past and present. With different theoretical perspectives, which are mainly based on a cultural studies approach, we work on the different explorations and try to gain a deeper understanding about the mechanism, functions, and effects of the explored narratives and representations.