UNC German Studies Consortium

Spring 2006

Seminar in German Studies:  The Virtual and the Political  TR 3:30-4:45 PM

Instructor:  Oliver Speck (Assistant Professor of German – 910-962-7311) specko@uncw.edu

Description: The collective memory as rootedness, that at least in modernity could be re-constructed as lost authentic experience, is no longer possible. According to the French Philosopher Gilles Deleuze, the basic function of memory is Virtuality. With a notion reminiscent of Walter Benjamin, he states that we no longer remember what did not happen. This virtual archive, not to be confused with what was possible, has its own reality. The virtual concerns an event that did not happen, but that exists in a virtual world. This course will explore films that introduce a notion of the Virtual as a potential for political change (Run Lola Run, The Third Generation).

Films:

The Edukators (Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei), 2004 by Hans Weingartner

The Experiment (Das Experiment), 2001 by Oliver Hirschbiegel

What To Do In Case of Fire? (Was tun, wenn's brennt?), 2001 by Gregor Schnitzler

Run Lola Run (Lola rennt), 1998 by Tom Tykwer

Until the End of the World (Bis ans Ende der Welt), 1991 by Wim Wenders

The Third Generation (Die Dritte Generation), 1979 by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Germany in Autumn (Deutschland im Herbst), 1978 by Fassbinder, Kluge, et al.

Also some other films:
Groundhog Day
Total Recall
Vanilla Sky (and the Spanish original)
Sliding Doors
Videodrome
eXistenZ