Introduction

Abstract

This book explores German artists’ critical engagement with the images and stories through which politicians and the media describe globalization. International relations, migration, work, and war provide the thematic foci of the subsequent four chapters. I examine cinematic and dramatic texts in order to understand and assess the innovative symbolic forms through which one national culture deals with the impact of changes in these four areas on the democratic institutions and values that emerged in the era of nation-states. The choice of Germany is strategic because the country that not too long ago was the poster child of democratization is now struggling with processes that challenge democratic dreams and principles. German theater and, in more recent times, the German cinema have participated in the creation of a critical public sphere where tensions between nation and democracy could be addressed. Both institutions now offer arenas where the question whether the social order created by globalization is compatible with democracy can be collectively considered. At the same time, the very processes that are depicted on screen and on stage are altering the structure and function of cultural institutions. The changing conditions of cultural production have already shrunk the social spaces where the affirmative “globalist” discourse (Ulrich Beck 2000) prevailing in the media and in official political discourse can be held up to democratic notions of the common good.