The Medialization of Power

Since cinema developed into a mass medium, its power-political dimension has increasingly come to the fore. Cinema, after all, not only explores and questions reality, but also intentionally influences and shapes it.

What film-specific concepts of power have evolved historically? How are they changing in current cinema films and television series? What role do cinematic effects and technologies play in the dissemination of political messages? The conference will take up these and many other questions as it debates the interplay of politics and aesthetics in film.

2015, May 7, Thu

2.30 pm – 2.40 pm
Welcome speech
Prof. Dr. Claudia Bruns (Institute for Cultural History and Theory, Humboldt University of Berlin)

2.40 pm – 3 pm
Irina Gradinari/Nikolas Immer/Johannes Pause:
The Medialization of Power. Introduction

Section I: Figurations of Political Deviance

Moderation: PD Dr. Julia B. Köhne (Berlin)

3 pm – 4 pm
Prof. Dr. Lars Koch (Dresden): Between Heroization and Suspicion. The Figure of the Returning Soldier in Homeland and Hatufim

4 pm – 4.30 pm
Break

4.30 pm – 5.30 pm
Prof. Dr. Niels Werber (Siegen): Survival in a State of Emergency. Political Experiments in The Walking Dead

5.30 pm – 6.30 pm
Dr. Irina Gradinari (Berlin): War against Everyone. Terrorism and Gender in Homeland (2011-)

7 pm
Evening presentation
Prof. Dr. Thomas Macho (Berlin): Brave New Political World. Visual Imperatives of Representation

2015, May 8, Fri

Section II: Political Bodies

Moderation: Dr. Tobias Nanz (Dresden)

9 am – 10 am
Dr. Nikolas Immer (Trier): Mask and Might. Elizabeth I and the Aestheticization of the Body Politic

10 am – 11 am
Prof. Dr. Ursula von Keitz (Potsdam): Bodies Under Power. The Actors’ Range of Movement in Frank Vogel’s Denk bloß nicht, ich heule (Just Don’t Think I’ll Cry, GDR 1965)

11 am – 11.30 am
Break

11.30 am – 12.30 pm
Prof. Dr. Ute Holl (Basel): The People Appears. Schönberg, Straub/Huillet, Meins

12.30 pm – 2 pm
Break

Section III: Media Cycles of the Political

Moderation: Myriam Naumann (Berlin)

2 pm – 3 pm
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Thomas Morsch (Berlin): The Melancholy of Disaster Capitalism / The Shadow Side of the Emotion Economy. On the (In)Visibility of Financial Power in Post-Cinematographic Film

3 pm – 4 pm
Dr. Julia Zutavern (Zurich): The Rhetoric of Powerlessness. On Strategies of the Cinematic (Self-)Portrayal of Social Movements

4 pm – 4.30 pm
Break

4.30 pm – 5.30 pm
Prof. Dr. Vinzenz Hediger (Frankfurt am Main): Mr. Bumpers goes to Washington. Bill Clinton’s impeachment and the superfluity of figurative speech

5.30 pm – 6.00 pm
Break

6.00 pm
Evening presentation
Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Bronfen (Zurich): “Promotional Effects”: Mad Men and the Political Imaginary

2015, May 9, Sat

Section IV: Political Aesthetics of Hollywood

Moderation: Yumin Li (Berlin)

9.30 am – 10.30 am
Dr. Sulgi Lie (Berlin): Urge, Image, Society. Cinematic Desublimation in Contemporary Hollywood

10.30 am – 11.30 am
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Ivo Ritzer (Bayreuth): Out for Justice. Badiou’s Moving Image, Hegel’s Heroic Age and Seagal’s South Africa

11.30 am – 12 am
Break

12 pm – 1 pm
PD Dr. Marcus Stiglegger (Mainz): Spy Games. Surveillance and Paranoia in the American Thriller since 1990

1 pm – 2.30 pm
Break

Moderation: Dr. Dorit Müller (Berlin)

2.30 pm – 3.30 pm
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Martin Doll (Düsseldorf): The Self-Assured Viewer and the Political Thriller

3.30 pm – 4.30 pm
Dr. Johannes Pause (Dresden): The Phantasmagoria of Reality. How Hollywood Politicizes the Imagination

4.30 pm – 5 pm
Closing discussion

Organizer: Dr. Irina Gradinari (Institute for Cultural History and Theory, Humboldt University of Berlin), Dr. Nikolas Immer (University of Trier) and Dr. Johannes Pause (Dresden University of Technology) in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Claudia Bruns (Institute for Cultural History and Theory, Humboldt University of Berlin). Supported by Fritz Thyssen Foundation.