Jakub Gortat, „Austria’s Difficult Past. Memory of National Socialism and the Filmization of Television (1960-1980)“
The role played by film in reshaping Austria’s post-war national identity is often studied within narrow historical and geographical margins. Film history traditionally focuses on either the work of a sole director, German cinematography, or the immediate aftermath of World War II, and neglects the link that exists between historical television films and Austria’s distinct culture of remembrance. In Austria’s Difficult Past, Jakub Gortat addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive analysis of television films produced by Austrian (ORF) and German television studios between 1961 and 1980. In doing so, he explores the way films mediated the burden of memory and the legacy of Austria’s complicity in the Nazi regime.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Austrian Culture of Remembrance and the Media
Chapter 2. The Difficult Past in Docufiction
Chapter 3. Axel Corti Comes to Terms with the Difficult Past in the 1970s
Chapter 4. National Socialism Comes to the Heimat: Alpensaga IV and V
Chapter 5. Adaptations. Difficult Past in the Fiction Films
Conclusion
Appendix: Number of Emissions and Number of Phone Calls Made by Viewers after the Emissions
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Jakub Gortat is Assistant Professor in the Institute of German Philology at the University of Lodz. His academic interests fall into the area of the German and Austrian politics of memory, the intersections of film, history and politics in Germany and Austria, as well as German-Polish cultural relations after 1945. He has recently published research in New German Critique; German Life and Letters; Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance; Journal of Austrian Studies, and Holocaust Studies – A Journal of Culture and History.
338 pages / 2025
Volume 38 of the book series Austrian and Habsburg Studies
Full text PDF
https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/GortatAustrias