CfP: Decentering German Cinema
CfP: Decentering German Cinema (November 13-14, 2020)
Keynote address by Dr. Sabine Hake (The University of Texas at Austin)
1n 1996, Marc Silberman asked, “What is German in the German cinema?” In challenging the easy definition of national cinemas based on linguistic or geo-political borders, he illustrated the difficulty of pinpointing exactly what is “German” cinema, especially when taking into account the often multi- and transnational aspects of its history. His conclusion that “the form of the question tends to determine the way it is answered” suggested that the way German cinema was understood largely owed to the limitations scholars put on it in the framing of their own scholarship. The categories of German cinema, then, are self-defined and, thus, self-limiting. Similarly, both Anton Kaes and Sabine Hake have wrestled with how to define German cinema, both issuing calls to action to develop case studies (Sabine Hake) and “new cinema history” (Anton Kaes) to explore new ways of approaching and defining the what and who that comprise German cinema.
