Hitler Goes Pop: Reflections on Media Representation and Collective Memory
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 June 2021
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).
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- The Construction and Dynamics of Cultural Icons , pp. 209 - 228Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2021