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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Writing the Revolution: The Construction of 1968 in Germany

Writing the Revolution: The Construction of 1968 in Germany

Cornils, Ingo

Paperback

Series: Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture, Book 174

Literary CriticismGeneral World HistoryGerman History

ISBN10: 1640140719
ISBN13: 9781640140714
Publisher: Camden House Inc
Published: Feb 17 2020
Pages: 328
Weight: 1.05
Height: 0.70 Width: 5.90 Depth: 8.90
Language: English

In Germany, the concept of 1968 is enduring and synonymous with the German Student Movement, and is viewed, variously, as a fundamental liberalization, a myth, a second foundation, or an irritation. The movement's aims - radical re-imagination of the political and economic order and social hierarchy - have been understood as requiring a long march. While the movement has been judged at best a successful failure, cultural elites continue to engage in the construction of 1968. Ingo Cornils's book argues that writing about 1968 in Germany is no longer about the historical events or the specific objectives of a bygone counterculture, but is instead a moral touchstone, a marker of social group identity meant to keep alive (or at bay) a utopian agenda that continues to fire the imagination. The book demonstrates that the representation of 1968 as a foundational myth suits the needs of a number of surprisingly heterogeneous groups, and that even attempts to deconstruct the myth strengthen it. Cornils brings together for the first time the historical, literary, and media representations of the movement, showing the motivation behind and effect of almost five decades of writing about 1968. In so doing, Cornils challenges the way 1968 has been instrumentalized: as a powerful imaginary that has colonized every aspect of life in Germany, and as symbolic capital in cultural and political debates.

Ingo Cornils is Professor of German Studies at the University of Leeds.

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