The Meaning of Small Things: Everyday Drama and History from Below

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook chapterResearchpeer-review

This chapter analyzes the relation between macro-history, the big historical events and structures, and micro-history, the everyday lives of people and families and how history influences them. The chapter is based on a comparative analysis of Edgar Reitz’s famous international success Heimat – Eine Deutsche Chronik (1984, here called Heimat 1) and Peter Moffat’s English series The Village (I–II, 2013–2014), which the writer-director himself has called ‘a British Heimat’. The two series are placed in a theoretical context of ordinary life studies, but the way they frame history and the potential point of reception they create to historical events is also discussed from a cognitive memory perspective. The comparative analysis points to similarities between the two series, but also clear differences.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPalgrave European Film and Media Studies
Number of pages36
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media B.V.
Publication date2020
Pages73-108
Chapter4
ISBN (Print)978-3-030-60495-0
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-030-60496-7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
SeriesPalgrave European Film and Media Studies
ISSN2634-615X

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

ID: 280301102