Putting the Theatre of Memory to the Test?: “Just an Ordinary Jew” and the Theory of Y. Michal Bodemann
Olga Wesołowska
olga.wesolowska@edu.uni.lodz.plUniversity of Lodz (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9322-2128
Abstract
According to Y. Michal Bodemann, contemporary memory politics in Germany and German-Jewish relations are subordinated to the so-called theatre of memory. A film that seems to oppose this is Just an Ordinary Jew (Ein ganz gewöhnlicher Jude, dir. Olivier Hirschbiegel, 2005), which is based on a monodrama by Charles Lewinsky that is critical of German politics of memory. It is worth considering whether this work criticizes the politics of memory in Germany only on a declarative level (through the monologue delivered by the protagonist) or also through the film form. The theoretical framework of this article is provided by references to theories in the field of memory studies, in particular to Bodemann’s publications. A contextual analysis of the film is crucial due to the numerous references to German debates about the past. An analysis of selected aspects of the film form describes the role of filmic means of expression in the process of (de)constructing Jewishness and the theatre of memory.
Keywords:
politics of memory, theater of memory, Jews in Germany, Y. Michal Bodemann, Charles Lewinsky, German cinemaReferences
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Authors
Olga Wesołowskaolga.wesolowska@edu.uni.lodz.pl
University of Lodz Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9322-2128
Doctoral student in the Doctoral School of Humanities at the University of Lodz, associated with the Department of Film and Audiovisual Media. She graduated in cultural studies (majoring in film studies) and German philology (majoring in translation). Erasmus+ exchange scholar at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2017) and the University of Cologne (2019). GFPS research fellow at the Justus Liebig University in Gießen (2022), she also completed a research stay within the framework of the Austrian Republic Scholarship (OeAD) in Vienna (2023). Research interests: contemporary German and Austrian cinema, Jewish life in Austria and Germany after 1945, memory studies, Polish-German cultural contacts. Author of the book Poszukiwanie tożsamości w kraju (nie)pamięci. O dokumentalnej twórczości Ruth Beckermann [Searching for Identity in the Land of (Non)memory: On the Documentary Work of Ruth Beckermann] (2022).
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