Soccer and Social Identity in Contemporary German Film and Media
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SOCCER AND SOCIAL IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY GERMAN FILM AND MEDIA by Gavin M Hicks BA, University of Pittsburgh 2007 MA, University of Pittsburgh 2009 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2014 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH KENNETH P. DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Gavin M Hicks It was defended on April 11, 2014 and approved by John Lyon, Associate Professor, Department of German Sabine von Dirke, Associate Professor, Department of German Clark Muenzer, Associate Professor, Department of German Gayle Rogers, Assistant Professor, Department of English Dissertation Advisor: Randall Halle, Professor, Department of German ii Copyright © by Gavin M Hicks 2014 iii SOCCER AND SOCIAL IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY GERMAN FILM AND MEDIA Gavin M Hicks, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2014 This dissertation analyzes a selection of German soccer films that construct and imagine social realms of German cultural interaction. Together these films channel imaginations of Germany through the populism and simplicity of soccer and posit forms of German social identity. These expressions of German identity do not revert to nostalgic, static social identities based on the exclusivity of national or ethnic heritage. Instead, these films frame German identity in the twenty-first century circumstances of cultural exchange, cosmopolitan empathy, and pan- European social movements. I argue that examining the social theories and movements of hooliganism, ultra culture, multiculturalism, and feminism provides for a more contemporarily informed reading of the connection between soccer-related media and social identity than reverting back to historical forms of German social identity and misreading German soccer fandom as the reemergence of xenophobic nationalism. The intersection of soccer and film produces a particular sort of social commentary. Soccer functions as a filmic narrative tool that guides social commentary to a simplified world of dualities: winners vs. losers, us vs. them, or the political right vs. the left. I describe the narrative structure of soccer, film, and social commentary with statement theory: a structuralist method of examining “statements,” which are the culmination of the filmic form, socio-cultural context, iv and utopic or dystopic visions of society. I argue that the filmic soccer narrative dictates social commentary into utopic or dystopic statements; statements of idealism that necessarily project a social wish or fear into the future, even if that utopia or dystopia is cinematically depicted in an imagined now. The multicultural, post-multicultural, dystopic, and post-dystopic statements are short forms of narratively and visually mediating social identity. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... IX 1.0 INTRODUCTION: SOCCER, STATEMENTS, AND GERMAN IDENTITY BEYOND THE SUMMER FAIRYTALE ......................................................................... 1 1.1 SOCIAL IDENTITY IN GERMAN SOCCER FILM .......................................................... 2 1.2 A WORD ON “FUßBALLFILM” ....................................................................................... 5 1.3 WHY “PATRIOTISM” INADEQUATELY DESCRIBES TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY SOCCER FANDOM IN GERMANY: THE FILMS OF SÖNKE WORTMANN ............. 6 1.4 GERMAN SOCIAL IDENTITY BEYOND THE PATRIA ............................................. 14 1.5 SURVEY OF EXISTING SOCCER AND SOCCER FILM SCHOLARSHIP ................ 16 1.6 STATEMENT THEORY AND THE SOCCER NARRATIVE ....................................... 19 1.7 CHAPTER OVERVIEW ................................................................................................... 23 1.8 TERMINOLOGY .............................................................................................................. 30 2.0 SOCCER PATRIOTISM AND MULTICULTURALISM AFTER 2006 .................... 31 2.1 TIGER “DIE KRALLE VON KREUZBERG” ................................................................. 36 2.2 ETHNO-COMEDY AND CULTURAL STEREOTYPES ............................................... 38 2.3 TIGER IN THE GERMAN PRESS: RECONCILIATORY DRIVE ................................ 42 2.4 SOCCER PATRIOTISM AS A PERFORMATIVE MODALITY ................................... 47 2.5 KANAK TV AND THE SUSPICION OF MULTICULTURALISM .............................. 53 2.6 THE SOCCER NARRATIVE ........................................................................................... 62 vi 2.7 THE MULTICULTURAL STATEMENT ........................................................................ 67 2.8 THE POST-2006 LANDSCAPE ....................................................................................... 73 3.0 UTOPIA OF THE WOMEN’S GAME – THE CASE OF FOOTBALL UNDERCOVER .................................................................................................................. 77 3.1 TWO HISTORIES OF WOMEN’S SOCCER MEET ...................................................... 81 3.2 NARMILA, NILOOFAR, AND SUSU AS THE MUSLIM WOMAN ............................ 90 3.3 AL-DERSIMSPOR AS ISLAM IN GERMANY ........................................................... 102 3.4 THE POST-MULTICULTURAL STATEMENT ........................................................... 107 3.5 FOOTBALL UNDERCOVER AND SOCIAL IDENTITY ............................................. 114 3.6 FROM PLAYERS TO FANS .......................................................................................... 122 4.0 THE DYSTOPIAS OF GERMAN ULTRAS AND HOOLIGANS ............................. 124 4.1 SOCCER FANDOM IN GERMAN FILM ..................................................................... 126 4.2 GEGENGERADE – 20359 ST. PAULI: A PRO-ULTRA FILM ................................... 130 4.3 SOCIAL IDENTITY IN GEGENGERADE .................................................................... 149 4.4 THE DYSTOPIC STATEMENT .................................................................................... 154 4.5 66/67 – FAIRPLAY WAR GESTERN: MULTICULTURAL HOOLIGANS .................. 157 4.6 THE BIRTH OF INDIVIDUAL VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL DEVIANCE ................. 167 4.7 THE POST-DYSTOPIC STATEMENT ......................................................................... 176 4.8 STATEMENTS COMPARED ........................................................................................ 182 5.0 CONCLUSION: SOCIETY THROUGH THE LENS OF SOCCER FILM .............. 184 5.1 MULTICULTURALISM AND STATEMENT THEORY ............................................ 185 5.2 SOCCER SUBCULTURES ............................................................................................ 192 5.3 CLUB OVER NATION .................................................................................................. 195 vii 5.4 THE WOMEN’S GAME ................................................................................................. 198 5.5 FUTURE RESEARCH .................................................................................................... 201 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 204 FILMOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................... 213 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation committee members: Dr. Gayle Rogers, Dr. Clark Muenzer, Dr. John Lyon, Dr. Sabine von Dirke, and my advisor Prof. Randall Halle. Dr. Muenzer has not only provided much needed editorial guidance, but has also challenged me philosophically in ways that few persons have. Dr. Lyon has been a rock of support during my time in the German Department and has given me an education in canonical German Studies that is at once concrete and infinitely sophisticated. Were it not for Dr. von Dirke’s encouragement and support, I would not have even applied for graduate school. Her guidance throughout my academic career has been invaluable. Prof. Dr. Randall Halle has become a life teacher, empowering me to channel my demons towards a greater good. He has always been there to check my pride and impetuousness with just the right amount of patience and honesty. The freedom he allowed me, and the discipline he demanded of me, has brought me to a stage in life I never would have thought possible. I am grateful for his guidance and proud of the relationship that we have built. I would like to thank the administrators of the German Department for bringing me to the finish line: Ms. Elizabeth Phillips and Ms. Alana Dunn. I give a special thanks to Dr. Elizabeth Wylie-Ernst, who taught me how to teach. I thank professor emerita Dr. Beverly Harris-Schenz for many words of wisdom over Indian food, and I thank Dr. Klaus-Dieter Post, whose optimism and creative spirit continue to inspire me. I am grateful for the friendships I have built with my colleagues Ljudmila Bilkić and Dr. Yvonne Franke. The emotionally vibrant and intense experiences that I have shared with Mila have impacted me greatly, and for this I am thankful. ix Yvonne not only paved the way for me academically, but also became a member of my little family. I would like to thank my extended family: Valente and Teresa Aguilar, and my many aunts, uncles, and cousins in the deserts of the Southwest. I thank