Horror Film and the Historical Uncanny: The New Germany in Stefan Ruzowitzky's "Anatomie"

Stefan Ruzowitzky's recent horror film "Anatomie" explores the fictional premise that underneath the democratic surface of contemporary Germany, and within its technocratic elites, traces of the country's fascist past still linger. However, "Anatomie" mobilizes this ver...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:College literature 2004-04, Vol.31 (2), p.117-142
Main Author: Hantke, Steffen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anatomy
Disorders
Ethics
Exhibitions
Exhibits
Fascism
Fathers
Fear
Grandfathers
Horror fiction
Human back
Literary Genres
Medicine
Motion picture criticism
Motion pictures
Movies
Nazi era
Nazism
Personality Traits
Photography
Public health
Ruzowitzky, Stefan
Universities
Citations: Items that cite this one
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Summary:Stefan Ruzowitzky's recent horror film "Anatomie" explores the fictional premise that underneath the democratic surface of contemporary Germany, and within its technocratic elites, traces of the country's fascist past still linger. However, "Anatomie" mobilizes this version of the historical uncanny only insofar as the film is marketed to an audience in the global marketplace, predominantly in the U. S. While the film plays to this audience's anxieties stemming from Germany's unsurmounted Nazi past, it articulates anxieties for its German audience that are specific to contemporary processes of socioeconomic restructuring and generational change. Central to these anxieties are the backlash against 1960s oppositional politics and its perceived mainstreaming, and the destabilization of social equality and middle-class prerogatives as a result of market deregulation.
ISSN:0093-3139
1542-4286
1542-4286
DOI:10.1353/lit.2004.0020