Screening Twentieth Century Europe: Television, History, Memory 9783030604950, 9783030604967

This book offers a comparative study of historical television genres in Europe, with a special focus on Germany and Grea

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Screening Twentieth Century Europe: Television, History, Memory
 9783030604950, 9783030604967

Table of contents :
Acknowledgments
Contents
List of Figures
1 Introduction: Mediating European History
Our Embodied Mind and Mediated Cultural Encounters
An Age of Extremes
At the Dawn of a New Century
Historical Views of Europe in the Twentieth Century
History in Our Culture and Minds: Historical Genres, Mediated Cultural Encounters
Screening Twentieth-Century Europe: Outline of the Book
References
2 History as Mediated and Embodied Narratives
Mediating History: National and Transnational Dimensions
History and Our Narrative Mind
History and Memory
Historical Narratives and the Psychological and Cultural Dimensions of Reception
Memory: Social and Subjective Dimensions
References
3 Historical Genres on Television: The Broader European Picture
Basic Historical Genres
Impact and Importance of Historical Fiction and Docudrama
Frozen Cultures: Historical Drama in Eastern Europe
Challenged Democracies: Southern Europe
Creative Encounters and Structures of Co-production: Western and Northern Europe
Imagining and Narrating Twentieth-Century Europe: Focus and Perspectives
References
4 The Meaning of Small Things: Everyday Drama and History from Below
The Embodiment of History
Heimat: A Reflexive and Symbolic Narrative of Everyday Life
Heimat 1: A Symbolic and Realist Story of Home and the World Beyond
Reitz and the Visual and Narrative Language of Memory
The Village: The English Heimat Series with a Difference
Gender, Class, Sex and the Roaring Twenties
Everyday Drama: Impact, Reception and the Dimensions of Memory
References
5 History from Above: Historical Biopics
German Biopics: The Bad and the Good Characters
Biopics as Multi-Layered Docudrama: The Case of Heinrich Breloer
The Complex Cultural, Historical Biopic: Breloer and the Mann Family
The Crown: An Intense Story of Queendom and Personal Freedom
The Crown: A Story of the Transformation of Post-War Britain
The Crown: A Story of Everyday Life and Mediated Politics
Lived Lives, Living History: Biopics and Historical Debate
References
6 Grand Illusions and the Great War: World War I Narratives
The End of an Era: British and German Period Dramas
War and the Changing Map of Europe
Realities and Memories
First World War Documentaries: Memories, Experiences and Factual Narratives
Documentary War Narratives: Multiple Voices and Narrative Strategies
German and Transnational European War Documentaries
British War Period Drama
Parade’s End: Heritage Toryism and Cloud-Cuckoo Land
A War that Changed Europe Forever
References
7 Living on the Edge: The Roaring Twenties and World Crisis
Fragile Democracies and Radicalized Political Cultures
Singing and Dancing on the Volcano: Life in the 1920s
Documenting the Past Through Personal European Stories: Clash of Futures as Transnational Memory Drama
The Weimar Years: Crisis, Political Chaos and the Cultural Avant-Garde
German Noir: Babylon Berlin as Period and Crime Drama
Between Two Wars: Class and Culture in British Period Drama
Down Dark and Sunny Lanes: Dennis Potter, Realism and Dreams of Popular Culture
The Stuff that Dreams Are Made of: The Imaginary and Enchanting Dimension
A Creative, Chaotic, Violent and Divisive Period
References
8 Hell on Earth: World War II Narratives
The Most Mediated War in Modern European History
World War II Documentaries: Explanation, Imagination and Narrative
World War II and Popular British Fiction Series
Memory, Guilt and German Docudramas
A New Generation of German War Drama
Beneath a Frozen Past: Moral Complexities and the German War Generation
World War II as European War: Mediated Transnational Cultural Encounters and Memories
References
9 Post-war Europe: A Social and Cultural Revolution
Better Times: Welfare Societies and Cultural Revolution
Living on a Thin Line Between Germany East and West
Dancing in Berlin: Mothers, Daughters and a New Way of Life
Leaving Heimat: Reitz’s Story of the Youth Revolution in Germany
The Complicated Way Back Home: Negotiating the Past and a New Present
Social and Cultural Dynamics in British Post-war Period Dramas
Tradition and Change: British Generational Period Drama
The Changing World of Women: Call the Midwife and the Post-war Social Revolution
A Changing Europe? Dreams and Realities
References
10 Europe 1989 and Beyond: Towards a New Millennium
Coming to Terms with the Post-1989 German Past: Memories and Realities
Reitz’s Heimat 3: A Chronicle About the Change of a Century
Dreams and Realities of Unification
A Unification Symphony in Many Parts and with Many Voices
The New Millennium: Symbolism and the Dialectic of Past and Present
Rough Realism and Dystopian Narratives: British Post-1989 Narratives
Reality or Nothing: Dennis Potter’s Dystopian Far Future Look at the Past
Between Utopia and Dystopia: Post-1989 Europe
References
11 Conclusion: History on Our Minds and the Forms of Mediated History
Mediated Cultural Encounters, History and Memory
Historical Genres and Twentieth-Century History
The Past in the Present
Quo Vadis Europe? the Twentieth Century and Beyond
References
Index

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