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Gundolf Graml: “Black bodies on White Snow: Luis Trenker’s Film the Prodigal Son as a Case Study for the (Re)Construction of Whiteness in Nazi Germany” – March 29, 2006

 

For the larger part of the twentieth century (and before), the idea of Germany as a white society and nation was undisputed. Yet how was this whiteness constructed? What scientific and non-scientific discourses contributed to its construction? Did the idea of whiteness change over time? What role did visual culture play in making Germans white? By discussing examples of early National Socialist Cinema, we can trace some of the strategies and means through which whiteness was continually reconstructed, while maintaining its position as unmarked, quasi-natural, and violently dominant racial category.

Gundolf Graml

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