Andrea K. Zach is an Assistant Professor of German and Undergraduate Director of Department of Modern and Classical Languages. Dr. Zach is a native German and holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from George Mason University. Dr. Zach teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Global Affairs, Globalization and Culture in Cultural Studies, and German language and culture courses as well as German literature in translation courses. Her studies are interdisciplinary and include political economy, German literature, German contemporary films and critical theory.
From the late eighteenth century onward, the German idea of heimat has carried a rich palimpsest of cultural and political purposes in the nation; since then, its political and ideological connotations have been inseparably linked to the uniqueness and appeal of the imaginary German culture nation [Kulturnation]. This book is an attempt to address the notion of heimat as it is either explicitly or implicitly positioned within the varied discourses in Germany today. What is the force that animates the idea of heimat? What are the real and ideological implications today to reimagine the notion of heimat in the context of this specific historical formation, that is, globalization? How has the idea of heimat been culturally produced and imagined in Germany in the last decade? What are the discursive practices through which notions of German identity and subjectivity have been constructed? What do cultural productions, such as films and literary texts of the last decade tell us about the spatial configuration of a ‘national’ German heimat in an era that claims itself to be ‘transnational’? What are the political, economic, and social implications of inclusion and exclusion in Germany and Europe that have produced a variety of subject positions? These are the questions that propelled the present inquiry. The main purpose of this inquiry can therefore be described as twofold: first, a mapping and examination of how the idea heimat is construed, defined, configured, and mobilized within a German/ European context; and second, an in-depth discussion of the types of implications that emerge from these endeavors.