Abstract
This essay undertakes a provisional reading of spray-painted writing on a dilapidated rural bus shelter that I encountered while investigating cultural practices that evoke and invoke the East German past in contemporary Germany. The graffiti, which read “DDR lebt!” (“East Germany lives!”), appeared in large red letters and was accompanied by the shape of a heart. I propose interpretive possibilities for the themes to which the graffiti allude, acknowledging that I construct a translation that others may not share. The bus shelter with its adornment serves as entry point into interrogating how East Germany is remembered and historicized today. Drawing on Slavoj Žižek (2002) and Svetlana Boym (2001), I point to the limitations of applying the construct of nostalgia to practices that appear to appraise positively Germany’s socialist past. Alaida Assman’s (1996) use of the trace, Kevin Hetherington’s (2010) theorizing on the ruin, and Walter Benjamin’s dialectical image emerge as alternative possibilities for interrogating how individuals intervene in unconventional, unpredictable, and contradictory ways as they connect what has been to the present.
Highlights
This essay undertakes a provisional interpretation of spray-painted writing on a dilapidated rural bus shelter that I encountered in 2010 while investigating cultural practices that evoke and invoke the East German past in contemporary Germany
Ostalgie entails a preoccupation with unique facets of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR)
It consists of such diverse articulations as the popularity of consumer goods that mimic those that were available in the GDR, television variety programs exploring the nation’s oddities, and the founding of amateur museums dedicated to East German everyday life
Summary
This essay undertakes a provisional interpretation of spray-painted writing on a dilapidated rural bus shelter that I encountered in 2010 while investigating cultural practices that evoke and invoke the East German past in contemporary Germany. The graffiti, which reads “DDR lebt!” (“East Germany lives!”), appeared in large red letters and was accompanied by the shape of a heart (see Figure 1). The bus shelter with its adornment captures the ambivalence that characterizes the place that the former socialist nation takes in the German imagination and offers itself as an opening in the interrogation of how East Germany is remembered and historicized today. I propose interpretive possibilities for the themes to which the graffiti allude. Walter Benjamin’s dialectical image emerges as alternative possibility for thinking about how cultural practices intervene in unconventional, unpredictable, and contradictory ways as they connect what has been to the present
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: TranscUlturAl: A Journal of Translation and Cultural Studies
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
