Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ph5wq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T14:52:18.059Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Hitler Goes Pop: Reflections on Media Representation and Collective Memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2021

Get access

Summary

Abstract

Today, history has penetrated daily life, appearing to meet a multitude of needs within society. Given the modality of modern mass media, historical representation also includes increased visualization, where recognizable images – icons – are a favoured vehicle of expression. Hitler functions as one of these icons. His image can be found in all forms of popular culture. This strong media presence goes together with a paradoxical situation caused by the taboo, which to this day engulfs his legacy. This chapter describes several examples of Hitler-representations as a means to discuss the different angles and cultural meanings that the use of Hitler's image elicit. The aim is to establish an interdisciplinary framework for analysis of such icons and their significance for the study of collective memory in general.

Keywords: mass entertainment, politainment, cartoons, comics, media figure, war propaganda

Introduction

The title of this chapter is, of course, provocative. In order to avoid any misunderstanding, I clarify here that I neither wish to trivialize nor deny historical fact. It is important to establish at the outset that this article deals with Adolf Hitler as a media figure. This does not mean there is no relation to the historical figure. However, while historians investigate historical facts and focus on the question of factuality with regard to the representation of history in the media, the challenge for researchers in cultural studies is in analysing the manner of representation and the resulting intertextual and intermedial references. I argue that representations can be a resource for both disciplines since, in the end, studying representations is essentially about how the past is dealt with and how it is portrayed in present-day media.

Furthermore, the title alludes to the trend, growing since the 1980s, in which history appears to be ‘an object of representation, production, and consumption within popular culture’. This trend can also be summarized by the phrase ‘the representation of history and the perception of the past in the modern media’, while we must also bear in mind the technological developments in the media over the last thirty years.

The consequence of this mediatization can be regarded as the omnipresence of history; the literary scholar Barbara Korte and the historian Sylvia Paletschek refer to it in this way in the introduction to their edited volume, History Goes Pop (2009).

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×