[csaa-forum] New book & launch: Divided Subjects, Invisible Borders: Re-Unified Germany after 1989

Ben Gook benjamingook at gmail.com
Thu Sep 17 15:12:27 ACST 2015


Dear CSAA members,

I wanted to let you know that my book about German re-unification is
published this week, a few weeks ahead of the twenty-fifth anniversary of
formal German re-unification (October 3). More details on the book below.
It has been published in the Place, Memory, Affect series by Rowman &
Littlefield International (London).

On October 7, the book will be launched in Melbourne at Readings, Carlton
by Prof. Alison Lewis (German Studies, Uni of Melbourne).

Event details:
http://www.readings.com.au/event/book-launch-divided-subjects-invisible-borders

The book can be seen here:
http://www.rowmaninternational.com/books/divided-subjects-invisible-borders

Cheers,
Ben

Dr Ben Gook

Coordinator & Lecturer | *Social Theory and Political Analysis*
Coordinator & Lecturer | *City Cultures*
Associate Investigator | ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of
Emotions

School of Social and Political Sciences
School of Culture and Communication
University of Melbourne


~


*Divided Subjects, Invisible Borders: Re-Unified Germany After 1989*
Ben Gook

*Divided Subjects, Invisible Borders details, through empirical and
theoretical exposition, how the national unity of Germany after the Fall of
the Berlin Wall conceals persistent division in the lives of eastern and
western Germans.*

"An excellent study of the interrelation between the physical, social and
the affective geographies that marked the re-unification of Germany, this
book offers a subtle analysis of the subjectivities created through that
process. *Divided Subjects, Invisible Borders* shows how analytically
productive – one can even say necessary – a subtle deployment of social
theory is when dealing with such complex social processes, and highlights
the continuing importance of psychoanalytic theory in making sense of
realities characterised by a deep entanglement of memory, affect,
fantasies, capitalism and geopolitics."
*Ghassan Hage FAHA, Professor of Anthropology and Social Theory, University
of Melbourne*

"Ben Gook shows in his theoretically sophisticated and quietly passionate
study that the complacent tale of successful German unification not only
forgets the erasure of eastern Germans' experiences and expectations when
the wall came down and the future seemed open but also reproduces the
inner-German division it sought to heal. *Divided Subjects, Invisible
Borders* is an auspicious debut."
*A. Dirk Moses, Professor of Global and Colonial History, European
University Institute, Florence*

"This book, situated at the intersections of psychosocial and cultural
studies, political science and anthropology, contributes original and
important ideas to the discussion of how psychoanalytic theories might be
applied to questions of remembrance, commemoration and nostalgia and helps
to elucidate how a liberal capitalist nation-state manages crises and
disruptions."
*Silke Arnold-de Simine, Senior Lecturer in Film, Media and Cultural
Studies, Birkbeck, University of London*

"This immensely knowledgeable and elegantly argued study focusses on the
fraught process of making sense of German re-unification. By
psychoanalytically exploring East and West German fantasies and
projections―i.e. the conceptualisation of subjectivity, memorialisation,
and nostalgic or fetishist object investments―Gook offers provocative and
most intriguing new insights into the affective workings (or impasses) of a
post-‘Wende’ society."
*Christiane Weller, Senior Lecturer in German Studies, Monash University*

What do Germany’s memorials, films, artworks, memory debates and national
commemorations tell us about the lives of Germans today? How did the Wall
in the Head come to replace the Wall that fell in 1989?

The old identities of East and West, which all but dissolved in joyous
embraces as the Berlin Wall fell, emerged once more after formal
re-unification a year later in 1990. 2015 marks the twenty-fifth
anniversary of that German re-unification. Yet Germany remains divided; a
mutual distrust lingers, and national history remains contentious.

The material, social, cultural and psychic effects of re-unification on the
lives of eastern and western Germans since 1989 all demand again asking
fundamental questions about history, social change and ideology.

*Divided Subjects, Invisible Borders* puts affective life at the centre of
these questions, both in the role affect played in mobilizing East Germans
to overthrow their regime and as a sign of disappointment after formal
reunification. Using contemporary Germany as a lens the book explores
broader debates about borders, memory and subjectivity.
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