(Ebook) Wounds of memory: the politics of war in Germany by Maja Zehfuss ISBN 9780511464843, 9780521873338, 0521873339, 0511464843

(Ebook) Wounds of memory: the politics of war in Germany by Maja Zehfuss ISBN 9780511464843, 9780521873338, 0521873339, 0511464843

German memories of the SecondWorldWar are controversial, and theyare used to justify different positions on the use of military force. Inthis book, Maja Zehfuss studies the articulation of memories in novelsin order to discuss and challenge arguments deployed in politicaland public debate. She explores memories that have generated considerablecontroversy, such as the flight and expulsion of Germans fromthe East, the bombing of German cities and the ‘liberation’ of Germanyin 1945. She shows how memory retrospectively produces a past whileclaiming merely to invoke it, drawing attention to the complexities andcontradictions within how truth, ethics, emotion, subjectivity and timeare conceptualised. Zehfuss argues that the tensions and uncertaintiesrevealed raise political questions that must be confronted, beyond thesafety net of knowledge. This is a compelling book which pursues anoriginal approach in exploring the politics of invocations of memory.