<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div>Dear CSAA members,<br><br></div>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).<br><br></div>On October 7, the book will be launched in Melbourne at Readings, Carlton by Prof. Alison Lewis (German Studies, Uni of Melbourne). <br><br>Event details:<br><a href="http://www.readings.com.au/event/book-launch-divided-subjects-invisible-borders">http://www.readings.com.au/event/book-launch-divided-subjects-invisible-borders</a><br><br>The book can be seen here:<br><a href="http://www.rowmaninternational.com/books/divided-subjects-invisible-borders">http://www.rowmaninternational.com/books/divided-subjects-invisible-borders</a><br><br></div><div>Cheers,<br></div><div>Ben<br><br><font size="1"><span style="color:rgb(153,153,153)">Dr Ben Gook<br><br>Coordinator & Lecturer | <i>Social Theory and Political Analysis</i><br>Coordinator & Lecturer | <i>City Cultures</i><br>Associate Investigator | ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions<br><br>School of Social and Political Sciences<br>School of Culture and Communication<br>University of Melbourne</span></font><br><br><br>~<br><b><br></b></div><b><i>Divided Subjects, Invisible Borders: Re-Unified Germany After 1989<br></i></b></div>Ben Gook<br></div><b><i></i></b><div><div><div><b><br><i>Divided Subjects, Invisible Borders</i> 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.</b><br><br>"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. <i>Divided Subjects, Invisible Borders</i> 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."<br><u>Ghassan Hage FAHA, Professor of Anthropology and Social Theory, University of Melbourne</u><br><br>"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. <i>Divided
Subjects, Invisible Borders</i> is an auspicious debut."<br><u>A. Dirk Moses, Professor of Global and Colonial History, European University Institute, Florence</u><br><br>"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."<br><u>Silke Arnold-de Simine, Senior Lecturer in Film, Media and Cultural Studies, Birkbeck, University of London</u><br><br>"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."<br><u>Christiane Weller, Senior Lecturer in German Studies, Monash University</u><br><br>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?<br><br>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.<br><br>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. <br><br><i>Divided Subjects, Invisible Borders</i> 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.<br></div></div></div></div>