Ebook: Generic Histories of German Cinema: Genre and Its Deviations

Over the last few decades, the field of film studies has seen a rise in approaches oriented toward genre. These genre-based studies look at thematic, narrative, and stylistic similarities between films, contextualizing films within culture and society more broadly. Although there is now a large body of genre-based film studies in the US and UK, German film scholarship has largely ignored the importance of genre. Even as the last several years have witnessed increasing scholarly interest in popular cinema from Germany, very few works have substantively engaged with genre theory. 'Generic Histories' offers a fresh approach to German film studies by tracing a series of key genres -- including horror, science fiction, the thriller, 'Heimat' films, and war films -- over the course of German cinema history. The volume also addresses detective films, comedies, 'policiers', and romances that deliberately localize global genres within Germany -- a form of transnationalism frequently neglected in German Studies. This focus on genre and history encourages rethinking of the traditional opposition (and hierarchy) between art and popular cinema that has informed German film studies and its approaches. In these ways, the volume foregrounds genre theory's potential for rethinking film history as well as cultural history more broadly. Jaimey Fisher is Associate Professor of German and Cinema and Technocultural Studies, and Director of Cinema and Technocultural Studies, at the University of California, Davis.