Examines the heightened role of politics in contemporary German and Austrian cultural productions and institutions and what it means for German Studies.As debates about Europe, migration, resurgent nationalism, and neoliberalism intensify in Germany and Austria, politics has gained particular prominence in cultural production and cultural institutions. How does this development affect German Studies as a discipline and a practice? Volume 14 of Edinburgh German Yearbook examines political or politicized aspects of contemporary life that have become increasingly significant for culture today. The contributions gathered here offer engaging readings of contemporary literary texts (including work by SaSa StaniSic, Anke Stelling, and Timur Vermes), films (by Fatih Akin, Ruth Beckermann, and Andreas Dresen), and other forms of cultural intervention (the polemics of Max Czollek and Oliver Polak, and the activism of the left-feminist group Burschenschaft Hysteria). These encourage us to consider how communities are being (re)shaped by current political and social crises, antagonisms around memory cultures, questions of European identity, as well as challenges to the status of an assumed Leitkultur and the discourse of integration.

IntroductionFrauke Matthes, Dora Osborne, and Katya KrylovaWriting the European Refugee Crisis: Timur Vermes' Die Hungrigen und die Satten (2018)Linda ShorttPluralized Selves and the Postmigrant Sublime: Isolde Charim's Ich und die Anderen (2018) and Wolfgang Fischer's STYX (2018)Teresa Ludden"Never an innocent game": The Center for Political Beauty and "Search for us!"Mary CosgroveIrreconcilable Differences: The Politics of Bad Feelings in Contemporary German Jewish CultureMaria Roca LizarazuGeography, Identity, and Politics in SaSa StaniSic's Vor dem Fest (2014)Myrto AspiotiPrecarious Narration in Anke Stelling's Schäfchen im Trockenen (2018)Stephanie GleißnerLimited Editions: Politics of Liveness at the Berliner Theatertreffen, 2017-19Katie HawthorneThe Akin Effect: Fatih Akin's Cultural-Symbolic Capital and the Postmigrant TheaterLizzie StewartGoodbye, Sonnenallee, Or How Gundermann (2018) Got Lost in the Cinema of OthersEvelyn PreussRuth Beckermann's Reckoning with Kurt Waldheim: Unzugehörig: Österreicher und Juden nach 1945 (1989) and Waldheims Walzer (2018)Joseph W. MoserBurschenschaft Hysteria: Exposing Nationalist Gender Roles in Contemporary Austrian PoliticsRegine Klimpfinger and Elisabeth KoenigshofeNotes on the Contributors