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Vom Raster zum Netzwerk: der westdeutsche Überwachungsapparat in den Werken von Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta, Friedrich Christian Delius und Rainald Goetz
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Mayer, Anna. Vom Raster zum Netzwerk: der westdeutsche Überwachungsapparat in den Werken von Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta, Friedrich Christian Delius und Rainald Goetz. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-qd7q-p944

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TitleVom Raster zum Netzwerk: der westdeutsche Überwachungsapparat in den Werken von Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta, Friedrich Christian Delius und Rainald Goetz
NameMayer, Anna (author); Naqvi, Fatima (chair); Behrmann, Nicola (member); Rennie, Nicholas (member); Gaderer, Rupert (member); Rutgers University; School of Graduate Studies
Date Created2022
Other Date2022-10 (degree)
SubjectLiterature, Film studies, Digital technologies, Media studies, Red Army Faction, Surveillance
Extent1 online resource (234 pages) : illustrations
DescriptionThe 1970s in West Germany were a tumultuous decade: Terrorist groups declared war on the political and economic elites, tabloids created a widespread sense of insecurity, and the government developed an intrusive surveillance apparatus by adopting emerging technologies. Focusing on this pivotal decade, this project investigates how early digital surveillance enters film and literature.

Two structures are at the center of my analysis: grids and networks. Grids, whether used on maps or in databases, are static. They are tools for ruling spaces. In contrast, networks ceaselessly establish connections. They undermine regulatory structures. In the 1970s the West German police force undergoes a drastic change: Analog files are digitized, and a comprehensive database is put in place. For the first time, network technology was used for surveillance on a national scale. Grids and networks, I argue, become structures through which the novel make-up of the digital surveillance apparatus is rendered subject to debate within the fictional realm.

Four works are central to my analysis: In Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta’s film Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum (The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, 1975) I read architectonic grids as an extension of the intrusive investigation to which the protagonist Blum is subjected. In Friedrich Christian Delius’ novel Ein Held der inneren Sicherheit (A Domestic Security Hero, 1981) rhizomatic structures, such as hives of insects, enter the grids of corporate high-rises that were targeted by terrorists. Delius’ novel Himmelfahrt eines Staatsfeindes (Ascension of an Enemy of the State, 1992) closely engages with governmental surveillance in describing a network of apparti collecting information in an all-encompassing database. And Rainald Goetz’ novel Kontrolliert (Controlled, 1988) is permeated by rhizomatic structures that defy grids’ inherent compartmentalization. Goetz describes surveillance as a process of transcribing. The grids and networks of these cinematic and literary works negotiate a new concept of surveillance that is tied to the interception of networks to collect information on the entire West German population.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Genretheses
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-qd7q-p944
LanguageEnglish
CollectionSchool of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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