Visual afterlives of colonialism: images of Namibia on contemporary German television

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Periodical article

Title:	Visual afterlives of colonialism: images of Namibia on contemporary German television
Author:	Annuss, Evelyn
Year:	2011
Periodical:	Journal of Namibian Studies (ISSN 1863-5954)
Issue:	9
Pages:	7-16
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Germany Namibia
Subjects:	films television colonial history
Abstract:	Namibia, the former 'protectorate' German South-West Africa and main colony of the German Empire, has long been absent from contemporary German popular culture. However, since the centenary of the German extermination campaign against the Herero and the Nama in 2004, Namibia has attracted the attention of public television in Germany in a highly specific way. Namibia's desert has become the new regional background for a genre of melodramatic films that up until now had been set against Alpine backdrops. Starting with the genre itself, and then examining the material and the visual strategies, this paper considers the discursive relation between the new popularity of the Namibian setting on public television and critical explorations of colonial history. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]