De Nostalgia

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-406
Author(s):  
Friedrich Kittler
Keyword(s):  
Technology Transfer ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
World War ◽  
Gravity’S Rainbow ◽  
Gravity's Rainbow ◽  
Complete Destruction ◽  
Second World ◽  
Home Territory

The essay presents a reading of three war-related texts: Friedrich Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell, Heinrich von Kleist’s The Battle of Hermann, and Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Written against the background of the Revolutionary Wars and the Prussian Wars of Liberation, respectively, the plays by Schiller and Kleist engage in the discursive construction of an emphatic sense of heimat (home), either by way of creating the new sentiment of homesickness (originally called nostalgia) or by advocating the complete destruction of the very home territory you are trying to defend. Gravity’s Rainbow, in turn, decodes the Second World War as a massive exercise in technology transfer. It effectively presents a deconstruction of heimat in an age in which the imperative to merge technologies supersedes all national agendas.

Warschau im Sturm der Geschichte

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhold Vetter
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Second World War ◽  
European History ◽  
World War ◽  
Complete Destruction ◽  
The City ◽  
Second World ◽  
Comprehensive Study

Warsaw's cityscape reflects the great upheavals of recent European history like no other. From the complete destruction in the Second World War, through the reconstruction and redesign of the city under communist rule, to the modern European metropolis shaped by capitalism, they all had a formative influence on the Polish capital. Reinhold Vetter lived in Warsaw for thirty years and explored the city in every corner. He knows the buildings and places and their history and, with this volume, provides a comprehensive study of the influence of war, foreign rule, ideology, politics and economy on urban planning and architecture.

Gender and the Second World War

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinna Peniston-Bird ◽  
Emma Vickers
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Second World

Kapitalistische Krisen mit und ohne systemischer Herausforderung.

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (185) ◽  
pp. 543-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingo Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
World Market ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Deep Penetration ◽  
World War ◽  
Major Overhaul ◽  
Domestic Markets ◽  
Global Restructuring ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Class Power ◽  
Second World

This article draws on Marxist theories of crises, imperialism, and class formation to identify commonalities and differences between the stagnation of the 1930s and today. Its key argument is that the anti-systemic movements that existed in the 1930s and gained ground after the Second World War pushed capitalists to turn from imperialist expansion and rivalry to the deep penetration of domestic markets. By doing so they unleashed strong economic growth that allowed for social compromise without hurting profits. Yet, once labour and other social movements threatened to shift the balance of class power into their favor, capitalist counter-reform began. In its course, global restructuring, and notably the integration of Russia and China into the world market, created space for accumulation. The cause for the current stagnation is that this space has been used up. In the absence of systemic challenges capitalists have little reason to seek a major overhaul of their accumulation strategies that could help to overcome stagnation. Instead they prop up profits at the expense of the subaltern classes even if this prolongs stagnation and leads to sharper social divisions.

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