Border Awareness and the Re-Imagination of Nation in German Film

This book explores the role that borders play in the construction of German identity through the films of Fatih Akin, Andreas Dresen and Christian Petzold. Despite the insistence of conservatives that Germany is not an “immigration country,” it argues that the historical fluctuation of borders and the movement of populations into and out of Germany have resulted in a heightened consciousness of borders and their significance that contributes to a sense of ambivalence about national identity. Through the examination of border tropes and border crossings, as well as representations of liminality in the work of German filmmakers from various backgrounds, the book contends that “border awareness” can be seen as a function of a relationship to national boundaries rooted in histories of displacement that are not necessarily limited to the experiences of migrants and minorities. Drawing upon the work of literary scholars Leslie Adelson and Andreas Huyssen and film scholar Hamid Naficy, the book argues that the films discussed provide evidence for the emergence of new national narratives that could potentially link Germans from minority groups to a broader national imaginary.