Sympathy, Empathy, and Postmemory: Problematic Positions in <em>Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter</em>

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Critics often discount the television mini-series Unsere Mutter, unsere Vater (2013) as bad history, constructed around emotions rather than facts. This article argues, however, that emotional engagement does not necessarily inhibit critical engagement or moral reflection. My argument builds on an analysis of how the drama manipulates the sort of generational and gendered tropes that are central to Marianne Hirsch's theory of postmemory. Exemplifying the aesthetics of postmemory, the mini-series illuminates transformations in contemporary memory culture. It also raises questions overlooked by Hirsch about the ethical imperatives of postmemorial engagements with the history of the perpetrators.