© 2011 Kathleen Sclafani ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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© 2011 Kathleen Sclafani ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ‘BORDER CONSCIOUSNESS’ AND THE RE‐IMAGINATION OF NATION IN THE FILMS OF AKIN, DRESEN AND PETZOLD by KATHLEEN J. SCLAFANI A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School‐New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Comparative Literature written under the direction of Fatima Naqvi and approved by _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey JANUARY 2011 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ‘Border Consciousness’ and the Re‐imagination of Nation in the Films of Akin, Dresen and Petzold By KATHLEEN J. SCLAFANI Dissertation Director: Fatima Naqvi In my dissertation I explore the role that borders play in the construction of German identity through the films of Fatih Akin, Andreas Dresen and Christian Petzold. Despite the insistence of conservatives that Germany is not an “immigration country,” I argue that the historical fluctuation of borders and the movement of populations into and out of Germany have resulted in a heightened awareness of borders and their significance that contributes to a sense of ambivalence about national identity. This heightened awareness can be seen as a type of “border consciousness,” a term that originated in Chicano/a studies and has been used to analyze exilic and diasporic cinema but which I reconsider in the context of German film. By examining tropes of borders and border crossings, as well as representations of liminality in the work of German filmmakers from various backgrounds, I argue that in these works, border consciousness can be seen as a function of a relationship to national boundaries rooted in histories of displacement, but not necessarily limited to the experiences of migrants and minorities. Drawing upon the work of literary scholars Leslie Adelson and Andreas Huyssen and film scholar Hamid Naficy, I contend that the films I discuss provide evidence for the emergence of new national narratives that could potentially link Germans from ii minority groups to a broader national imaginary and offer an alternative to the language of divisiveness currently dominating public discourse. In addition, I question how this development can be seen in the context of changes in the European film industry that have begun to redefine ‘national’ cinema, encouraging the embrace of filmmakers who figuratively extend the boundaries of the nation iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank the many people who have made this dissertation possible and without whom I might not have endured the many years it took to complete this work. First, I would like to thank the Department of Comparative Literature at Rutgers, and the Graduate Directors who have helped me along the way. I am especially grateful to Elin Diamond for encouraging me to test out my ideas by submitting conference papers, and for providing me and the other graduate students a forum to discuss our work in an informal setting through our periodic potluck dinners. Thanks also to Undergraduate Director César Braga‐Pinto, who gave me the opportunity to teach my own self‐designed course, one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the German Department, whose faculty aided in re‐igniting my interest in the study of German language and literature that began at Colgate more than 25 years ago. I am most profoundly grateful, however, to Professor Fatima Naqvi, who not only introduced me to film, and German film in particular, but whose interest in my work and constant encouragement helped me see this project through. The value of her engagement with every stage of the writing process and her insightful and careful iv reading cannot be measured. Thanks also to the other members of my dissertation committee, Susan Martin‐ Marquez, Sandy Flitterman‐Lewis and David Gramling. Their encouraging comments have inspired me both to refine my ideas and hopefully, to pursue them further. Finally, I would like to thank my husband Michael, whose hard work allowed me the opportunity to complete my studies, and my children Michael and Jennifer for their tremendous patience and love. Without their support I would most certainly never have been able to achieve this life‐long goal. v Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………………ii Aknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………………iv Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………...1 Chapter 1……………………………………………………………………………………………………41 1.1 Berlin, Borders and German Identity...................................................................41 1.2 Border Consciousness and the Fragmentation of Modern Life................46 1.3 The Function of Borders in Berlin: Sinfonie and Himmel über Berlin....51 1.4 Berlin and the Production of “Abject Heroes”.................................................70 Chapter 2..............................................................................................................................76 2.1 Border Consciousness (1): The German Historical Imaginary and Liminal Spaces in the Ghost Trilogy........................................................................80 2.2 Border Consciousness (2): “Borderline” Characters in the Trilogy......92 2.3 Border Consciousness in Yella.............................................................................103 2.4 Conclusion....................................................................................................................120 Chapter 3............................................................................................................................127 3.1 After the Wende: East Germany as ‘Postcolonial’?.....................................130 3.2 Exile and Home Seeking in Nachtgestalten and Halbe Treppe................140 3.3 Nachtgestalten, Halbe Treppe and Border Consciousness........................158 3.4 Conclusion......................................................................................................................172 vi Chapter 4..............................................................................................................................177 4.1 Turks in Germany and the Evolution of Turkish‐German Filmmaking 179 4.2 Gegen die Wand and Auf der anderen Seite as “Transnational Myth”....190 4.3 Beyond “Accented”: Akin and Border Consciousness.................................215 Coda....................................................................................................................................224 Bibliography....................................................................................................................230 Curriculum Vitae............................................................................................................240 vii 1 Introduction The end of the Cold War and an increasingly global economy has compelled a reevaluation of the nature and significance of national borders. This is especially true in post‐Wall Germany, which has experienced not only the dismantling of the border between two formerly sovereign states, but an influx of immigrants from the defunct Eastern bloc nations as well as Africa and the Middle East. As a result, there have been heated controversies over the high cost of integrating former East Germans, and proposed changes in citizenship and asylum laws have some Germans worried that Germany is becoming an ‘immigration nation.’ Yet as historians Jarausch and Geyer maintain, shifting borders and populations were integral to the experience of Germans long before the upheavals of the twentieth century, and even precede the inception of the nation‐state in 1871 (22). Stemming from this experience, a heightened awareness of borders and the landscape of emotions this awareness engenders has become part of the national imaginary. However reluctant some may be to admit it, these notions connect ‘non‐minority’ Germans with the immigrants and ethnic minority groups they are often unwilling to claim as part of their own. My dissertation explores this heightened awareness, or what I term ‘border consciousness,’ as expressed in the work of three contemporary German filmmakers, and questions whether it may provide an opening for a new understanding of German national identity. In order to work through this argument, I first examine the relationship between cinema and nation, discussing the extent to which cinema both reinforces and subverts national borders and how it has 2 responded to recent changes in the understanding and experience of national identity, particularly in Europe. The second section of the chapter outlines the reasons a focus on borders is particularly appropriate as the basis for an exploration of German national identity, and I consider both German history and culture as well as the importance of Germany in the evolving process of European self‐definition. Finally, I discuss the various ways ‘border consciousness’ has been defined by other scholars, explain how it fits into the analysis of German cinema, and introduce the filmmakers whose work I will analyze in the dissertation. I. Cinema and National Borders Alan Williams, in his introduction to Film and Nationalism, explains the connection between cinema and nation when he notes that the narrative space of classic fiction film can provide