Erinnerungskultur Spring 2025 Topic: Erinnerungskultur

Catalog description

“Erinnerungskultur” is the German term for “remembrance culture” or “memory culture.” In this class, we will explore and analyze a variety of ways in which the past - particularly Germany’s tumultuous past - have been remembered. Using the tools of cultural studies, we will ask questions about the possibilities and limitations of representing the Holocaust, the Porajmos, and colonial violence in contemporary Germany. We will explore the ways that Germany’s past, present, and futures are intermingled, and how the ways the past is remembered has profound and often material effects, especially on vulnerable populations (e.g., refugees entering and living in Germany, Afro-German and Black people, Jewish communities, LGBTQIA folx, …) today. This class is taught in German. Satisfies the Historical Thought requirement. Prerequisites & Notes German 202 or permission of the instructor.