April 19 speaker to discuss remembrance of German terrorists in popular culture

Karin Bauer, a professor in the Department of German Studies at McGill University, will speak at Western Washington University at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, in SMATE Room 120.

The title of Bauer’s lecture is "The Politics of Remembrance Today: German Terrorism in the Media and the Arts." Professor Bauer will talk about how German terrorists in the Baader-Meinhof group, or Red Army Faction, are remembered in mass media and popular culture as "ultimate outsiders" to normal German society. Paradoxically, she argues, through this remembrance their violence acquires a kind of normality. Professor Bauer will conclude by asking what the case of the Baader-Meinhof group might tell us about the politics of remembrance of terrorism today. Questions and comments from the audience will be encouraged.

Bauer is the author of "Everybody Talks about the Weather: The Writings of Ulrike Meinhof" and "Adorno’s Nietzschean Narratives: Critiques of Ideology; Readings of Wagner," in addition to many articles on post-war German culture. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington and has taught at McGill University, located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, since 1994.

This lecture is sponsored by the Department of Liberal Studies at WWU.