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Long overlooked by scholars and critics, the history and aesthetics of German television have only recently begun to attract serious, sustained attention, and then largely within Germany. This ambitious volume, the first in English on the subject, provides a much-needed corrective in the form of penetrating essays on the distinctive theories, practices, and social-historical contexts that have defined television in Germany. Encompassing developments from the dawn of the medium through the Cold War and post-reunification, this is an essential introduction to a rich and varied media tradition.
List of contents
List of Figures
Introduction
Larson Powell and Robert Shandley
PART I: TECHNICAL PREHISTORY AND THEORETICAL APPROACHES
Chapter 1. Contingencies and Ruptures in the Technological History of Television
Wolfgang Hagen
Chapter 2. Boredom, War and Paradox: German Theories of Television
Larson Powell
PART II: GDR TELEVISION
Chapter 3. ‘Just Like in the West, Except Different:’ Television and its Relationship to Film in the Context of 1950s GDR Development
Thomas Beutelschmidt
Chapter 4. Adventures in Stagnation: Gottfried Kolditz’s Unfilmed Project Zimtpiraten
Evan Torner
PART III: TELEVISION IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC: AUTEURIST TV
Chapter 5. “A challenge, maybe the greatest for a filmmaker”: Televisual Perspectives on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Martha (1974)
Brad Prager
Chapter 6. Nah am Fern: Kluge TV
Stefanie Harris
PART IV: PRESENT AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
Chapter 7. Television History in Germany: Media-Political and Media-Ethical Aspects
Rüdiger Steinmetz
Chapter 8. Germany as TV Show Import Market
Lothar Mikos
Chapter 9. Heritage, Heimat, and German Historical ‘Event Television’: Nico Hofmann’s teamWorx
Paul Cooke
Chapter 10. Once Upon a Crime: Tatort, Germany’s Longest Running Police Procedural
Bärbel Göbel-Stolz
Bibliography
About the author
Larson Powell is Professor of German and Film Studies at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. His publications include the books The Technological Unconscious in Modern German Literature (2008) and a volume on post-1945 electronic media arts, The Differentiation of Modernism (2013).
Robert Shandley is Professor of German and Film Studies at Texas A&M University. His most recent books include Hogan's Heroes (TV Milestones Series, 2011) and Runaway Romances: Hollywood's Postwar Tour of Europe (2009).
Summary
Long overlooked by scholars and critics, the history and aesthetics of German television have only recently begun to attract serious, sustained attention, and then largely within Germany. This ambitious volume, the first in English on the subject, provides a much-needed corrective in the form of penetrating essays on the distinctive theories, practices, and social-historical contexts that have defined television in Germany. Encompassing developments from the dawn of the medium through the Cold War and post-reunification, this is an essential introduction to a rich and varied media tradition.
Additional text
“This collection of essays is the first of its kind in English … this volume offers well-researched, in-depth reflection on the subject of German television ranging from historical overview to case study and spanning the history of West and East Germany, the key relationship between film and television, and the transnational dimensions of programming, technology and audience.” · Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
