Remembering Heimat

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Remembering 'Heimat' in Contemporary Germany The multi-faceted notion of ‘Heimat’ is considered to be central to German social and cultural history since the early 19th century. Harking back to Herder’s notion of Germanness the term was traditionally linked to a specific geographical place or region and tied to collective identities rooted in a shared language, culture, history, ethnicity and race. The appropriation of ‘Heimat’ for the Blut and Boden ideology during National Socialism has illustrated the highly problematic, exclusionary dimension of the concept. Postwar and contemporary uses of the term vary greatly, ranging from recent conservative and far-right appropriations of ‘Heimat’ to alternative, inclusive reformulations of the concept – or rejections of the concept altogether. The arts, especially literature and film, play a crucial role in these developments. This graduate course explores how notions of ‘Heimat’ evolved over the course of the second half of the 20th century (in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust) and into the new millennium. Special attention will be given to changing representations of ‘Heimat’ in literature, film, and culture in the pre- and post-unification periods (1980s to the present).