German Cinema in the Age of Neoliberalism

Abstract

Scholarship Award from the University of Maryland allowed me to complete drafts of several chapters; I also thank Fatemeh Keshavarz-Karamustafa for granting me a course release that gave me time to complete the initial draft of the full manuscript amidst many administrative duties.I am especially grateful to the University of Maryland for supporting the open-access publication of this book, allowing it to enact the critique it offers by defying the privatization and marketization of academic research. My thanks go to Luka Arsenjuk of the Program in Cinema and Media Studies; Julie Koser of the Department of Germanic Studies; the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; the College of Arts and Humanities; and the University Libraries for providing funding. Special thanks to Kelsey Corlett-Rivera, Head of Research Commons, for her advocacy and support of open-access humanities scholarship, and to Terry Owen, Digital Studies Librarian, for his assistance. Many thanks as well to Lauretta Clough, Janny Peng, Amy Xing Struck, and Charlotte Yuk Fan Tai in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures for all their help in coordinating the subvention funding.I am thrilled to publish German Cinema in the Age of Neoliberalism with Amsterdam University Press and the Film Culture in Transition Series. I thank Senior Commissioning Editor Maryse Elliott for her encouragement and support of the project, especially amidst the challenges posed for publishing by the global pandemic in 2020, when this book went to press. My thanks also go to Mike Sanders for his careful gatekeeping of the manuscript; to Daniela Pinnone for her assistance with accounting; and to Chantal Nicolaes for coordinating production.Chapter 2 is partially based on my article "Das Boot and the German Cinema of Neoliberalism," published in German Quarterly 85.1 (2012). I thank Wiley Blackwell for permission to reprint this material. Several sections of the book also draw on material previously published in "Affectless Economies: The Berlin School and Neoliberalism" in Discourse 35.1 (2013) and "The Berlin School and Women's Cinema," in The Berlin School and Its Global Contexts, edited by Marco Abel and Jaimey Fisher (Wayne State UP, 2018). I thank Wayne State University Press for permission to republish portions of both essays.Finally, I thank my family, especially Della Baer and Ryan Long, for their care, sustenance, unwavering support, and enthusiastic and animated participation in home film screenings and discussions. They make ordinary life extraordinary, and they inspire me every day. I dedicate this book to my parents, Clint and Elizabeth Baer, with gratitude for their love and generosity.