Syftet med Hiter fur alle ar att ur ett brett perspektiv stalla fragor och problematisera kring p... more Syftet med Hiter fur alle ar att ur ett brett perspektiv stalla fragor och problematisera kring popularkulturens referenser till Nazityskland, andra varldskriget och forintelsen. Det handlar om for ...
Monsters in the Mirror Representations of Nazism in Popular Culture, 2010
In my PhD dissertation (2008) I have showed how the depiction of especially Hitler and the SS in ... more In my PhD dissertation (2008) I have showed how the depiction of especially Hitler and the SS in post-war popular culture contains striking elements of the mythical, both in a traditional, religiously connected sense and in the modern, secular, as described by Roland Barthes. This is not ...
The study follows the tradition of Cultural Studies, with a special interest in visual culture, a... more The study follows the tradition of Cultural Studies, with a special interest in visual culture, and examines how history is being represented in different media, how these representations are interpreted by their (Swedish) audience.
Den svenska populärkulturen använder och gestaltar flitigt Hitler och Nazityskland. Vi ser det i ... more Den svenska populärkulturen använder och gestaltar flitigt Hitler och Nazityskland. Vi ser det i deckare och dagspress, spelfilm, skolundervisning, konst och musik. De finns överallt i vår vardag utan att vi ägnar närmare eftertanke åt dem eller hur de påverkar oss.
I antologin Hitler für alle diskuteras begrepp som historiemedvetande, historiebruk, och minneskultur liksom politisk korrekthet, tabun och naziskämt. Syftet är att ur ett brett och tvärvetenskapligt perspektiv ställa frågor och problematisera kring populärkulturens referenser till Nazityskland, andra världskriget och Förintelsen. Vi möter Niels Bondes Hitlerkatt, bilden som utgör omslaget, seriehunden Rocky som utsätts för censur, provokatörer som använt nazistsymbolen och mycket mer.
Eva Kingsepp är fil. dr och verksam vid Stockholms universitet. Hon jobbar för närvarande med ett projekt om populärhistoria och minneskultur kring Nazityskland, andra världskriget och Förintelsen ur ett utomeuropeiskt perspektiv. Tanja Schult är fil. dr och lektor vid Hugo Valentincentrum, Uppsala universitet. Hon har publicerat flertalet artiklar om minnet av Förintelsen i konst och populärkultur samt föreläst i Sverige och utomlands.
The study follows the tradition of Cultural Studies, with a special interest in visual culture, a... more The study follows the tradition of Cultural Studies, with a special interest in visual culture, and examines how history is being represented in different media, how these representations are interpreted by the audience, and how the outcome functions in the individual knowledge-building about this particular era. Here the notion of what is often called a collective, or cultural, memory, is important; both as a vehicle for a dominant discourse on memory and as a counterpart to individual memory, which might be more or less in agreement or opposition with the dominant. A central theme is the examination of how elements of the mythical enters a historical narrative, how they affect this, and how this is being interpreted by the audience. The media texts examined are mostly films (fiction and docudramas as well as documentaries) and computer games, although there are also some examples from role-playing games and alternative popular music. The audience part of the study consists of 11 in-depth interviews and a number of additional informants.
I propose that the media material indicates a convergence between myth in the traditional, religiously connected sense, and in the secularized sense of Roland Barthes. The former is made visible by the persistent use of elements of a clearly metaphysical nature, while the latter is made clear through the almost omnipresent authoritarian character of the media presentations. The material in its entirety clearly shows the importance of transmediality, transmedia storytelling and knowledge communities (cf Henry Jenkins) within the context. The audience examined expresses a highly critical attitude towards what is considered to be a “mainstream” media representation of World War II and Nazi Germany that – according to them – transforms the gruesome historical reality into cheap thrills and entertainment. Thus, it becomes fundamentally problematic to look upon the media representations of the theme as an expression of collective memory.
En av de storsta genrerna inom det idag allt mer vaxande omradet dator- och TV-spel utgors av spe... more En av de storsta genrerna inom det idag allt mer vaxande omradet dator- och TV-spel utgors av spel som pa ett eller annat satt knyter an till andra varldskriget och Nazityskland. Har galler det att inte bara bekampa ondskan i form av nazister utan inte sallan aven deras mardromslika bundsforvanter – zombies, gengangare och andra ohyggliga varelser. Kopplingen mellan nazister, zombies och ockulta krafter over huvud taget finns inte bara i datorspel, utan har varit ett slitstarkt inslag i den vasterlandska popularkulturen under flera decennier. Med utgangspunkt i det populara datorspelet Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001) analyserar detta paper forekomsten av religiost praglad symbolik i popularkulturens representationer av Nazityskland, och undersoker vidare relationerna mellan ett sekulariserat och ett religiost forhallningssatt i fraga om detta.
In my recently (2008) finished PhD study I examined representations of Nazi Germany in today´s po... more In my recently (2008) finished PhD study I examined representations of Nazi Germany in today´s popular culture, and the reception of these, with a special focus on films and computer games. One of the main results is that fact and fiction are constantly being mixed, resulting in what can be characterised as a hyperreal, “fantastic” version of Nazi Germany, with close connections to traditional mythical narratives. However – and surprisingly enough – the study also clearly shows that it is within documentary films that one frequently finds elements of the mythical and the fantastic, including the occult and science fiction, while these are relatively rare in fictional narratives and docudramas. This presentation is based upon parts of my PhD thesis and shows how the mythical and the fantastic enter factual history tv programmes. I also discuss the implications of this for collective memories of Nazi Germany and World War II.
In the case of WWII - and the WWII FPS (First Person Shooter) games that I am studying for my PhD... more In the case of WWII - and the WWII FPS (First Person Shooter) games that I am studying for my PhD thesis - death is a main ingredient, so plain and obvious that you might even slip past it while looking for interesting things to analyse. But, as a number of researchers - for example Zygmunt Bauman - have pointed out: representations of death and changes in these, as well as ways in which we handle death and dying, offer important knowledge about cultural processes and self-understanding in contemporary society. This also accounts for our perception of the body and its symbolism, including aspects of impurity and decay (Bauman 1992, 1993, Douglas 1966, Kristeva 1980, Turner 1996, Ahren Snickare 2002; cf Bakhtin 1965). Obviously, there are important connections to the sphere of myth and religion. As pointed out by Durkheim and others after him, religion and mythical thought are to a large extent present even in so-called secularised societies (Durkheim 1912, Eliade 1957 a, 1957 b, Cas...
In this paper I look at visual representations of World War II, compare them to interviews with w... more In this paper I look at visual representations of World War II, compare them to interviews with what I call “Third Reich enthusiasts” and examine how the media texts and images function in creating a contemporary image of the historical events. WWII games cooperate, in their own way, in the maintenance of our collective memory. Nevertheless, in these games historical facts are not considered as important as excitement, heroes, villains (the dichotomy good/evil), and gothic surroundings. Thus, although claiming historical settings and narratives, they are rather reshaping WWII as a stereotypical event with more connections to popular films than to history in it self.
This paper discusses some of the different meanings appointed to the spiritual centre of Heinrich... more This paper discusses some of the different meanings appointed to the spiritual centre of Heinrich Himmler’s SS in Wewelsburg, including the Black Sun symbol, a floor mosaic in the North Tower of the castle. Wewelsburg castle and more recently the Black Sun have during the last decades become established as a token of Nazi esotericism – or occultism, the term I will use here – both in popular culture and in parts of the western esoteric underground as well as in more or less pro-Nazi circles.The aim of this paper is twofold, both related to the uses of history. The first concerns the basic assumptions about Nazi occultism as a phenomenon in itself. -What are the discursive relations between official memory culture and popular culture regarding Nazi occultism? The second is to look at the Temple of Set, more specifically its Order of the Trapezoid, as an example of how an esoteric group relates to Nazi occultism and puts this, as it is being conceived by leading members of the Order, ...
One rather peculiar, but nevertheless recurrent theme within popular culture representations of N... more One rather peculiar, but nevertheless recurrent theme within popular culture representations of Nazis and World War II, is Nazi zombies. You find them in movies, in novels, computer games and traditional pen-and-paper role-playing games, at least from the 1960´s and up until today. Walking dead Nazi soldiers are lurking in remote, snowy areas of the Bavarian Alps (Night of the Zombies, 1981) and in gloomy Eastern Europe (Outpost, 2008). They are emerging from the deep waters in the Pacific (Shock Waves, 1977) as well as from Lake Totenkopf [sic!] in (again) the Alps (The Illuminatus! Trilogy, 1975). Sometimes the uncannily revived corpses are identified as prominent characters within the Nazi hierarchy: Hitler (in Wolfenstein 3D, 1992), Himmler (in The Spear, 1978, and Vampire The Masquerade: Berlin By Night, 1993), or the fictive head of the historically existing occult Thule Society, Karl Ruprecht Kroenen (in Hellboy, 2004). There are many more examples. Nazi zombies, and other ki...
Symbolism connected to Nazi Germany, World War II and the Holocaust has been used within differen... more Symbolism connected to Nazi Germany, World War II and the Holocaust has been used within different youth subcultures at least since the late 1960´s. The appropriation of Nazi paraphernalia and NS references by the 1970´s punks continued in other ”new wave”-related subcultures. Although there has been countermovements within the subcultures themselves, banning ideological Nazism, the fascination with Nazi symbolism has not waned. Apart from the overtly political White Power, there is today a well-established use of Nazi-related aesthetics especially within Electronic Body Music (EBM) and Industrial, (where it is alledgedly ” de-politicized”); in Neofolk and related genres; and in Black Metal and its extreme subgenre National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM). In this article I examine the use of Nazi-related symbolism in the Black Metal/NSBM subculture, with mainly fan made music videos on YouTube and interviews as empirical material. What meanings are there to be found, and how do these ...
In the last decade, museums have explored and developed digital productions to evoke audience eng... more In the last decade, museums have explored and developed digital productions to evoke audience engagement, often with the intention of enhancing visitors’ experiences. However, theoretical understan ...
National Socialist ideology is founded on an intrinsic relation between Volksgenossen, Volksgemei... more National Socialist ideology is founded on an intrinsic relation between Volksgenossen, Volksgemeinschaft and Volkskorper – national comrades, ethnic community and racial corpus. Its doctrine of the ...
The article examines the relations between mainstream news media and alternative grassroots disco... more The article examines the relations between mainstream news media and alternative grassroots discourse, focusing on the mass murders in Oslo in July 2011 and the controversial Swedish chat room Flas ...
This paper is based upon the later writings of Italian author, director, translator and ambassado... more This paper is based upon the later writings of Italian author, director, translator and ambassador of Italian culture in Sweden, Giacomo Oreglia (1923-2007) and the concept of the Anarch. I will first present this in relation to the quest that Oreglia had set out on, in which he intended to proclaim a spiritual world revolution, following Dante, da Fiore and the adamites. Secondly I will put this in contrast with what, and with whom, Oreglia fiercely denounces as a false anarch, namely the use of this concept by Ernst Junger.
The esoteric side of the Nazi German Third Reich is subject to numerous media representations. In... more The esoteric side of the Nazi German Third Reich is subject to numerous media representations. In my paper I discuss the topic mainly from the view of documentary films, popular movies and computer games. One of the findings in my PhD study, dealing with the Third Reich in today´s popular culture, is that the esoteric, the occult, the gothic and the uncanny are to a large extent contributing to the shaping of a popular conception of the historical Nazi Germany. It is also proposing an explanation where the evil deeds performed by the Nazis to a large extent are either made possible by, or the direct result of, their engagement in a ”false, heathen religion” or even Devil worship and black magic.
Syftet med Hiter fur alle ar att ur ett brett perspektiv stalla fragor och problematisera kring p... more Syftet med Hiter fur alle ar att ur ett brett perspektiv stalla fragor och problematisera kring popularkulturens referenser till Nazityskland, andra varldskriget och forintelsen. Det handlar om for ...
Monsters in the Mirror Representations of Nazism in Popular Culture, 2010
In my PhD dissertation (2008) I have showed how the depiction of especially Hitler and the SS in ... more In my PhD dissertation (2008) I have showed how the depiction of especially Hitler and the SS in post-war popular culture contains striking elements of the mythical, both in a traditional, religiously connected sense and in the modern, secular, as described by Roland Barthes. This is not ...
The study follows the tradition of Cultural Studies, with a special interest in visual culture, a... more The study follows the tradition of Cultural Studies, with a special interest in visual culture, and examines how history is being represented in different media, how these representations are interpreted by their (Swedish) audience.
Den svenska populärkulturen använder och gestaltar flitigt Hitler och Nazityskland. Vi ser det i ... more Den svenska populärkulturen använder och gestaltar flitigt Hitler och Nazityskland. Vi ser det i deckare och dagspress, spelfilm, skolundervisning, konst och musik. De finns överallt i vår vardag utan att vi ägnar närmare eftertanke åt dem eller hur de påverkar oss.
I antologin Hitler für alle diskuteras begrepp som historiemedvetande, historiebruk, och minneskultur liksom politisk korrekthet, tabun och naziskämt. Syftet är att ur ett brett och tvärvetenskapligt perspektiv ställa frågor och problematisera kring populärkulturens referenser till Nazityskland, andra världskriget och Förintelsen. Vi möter Niels Bondes Hitlerkatt, bilden som utgör omslaget, seriehunden Rocky som utsätts för censur, provokatörer som använt nazistsymbolen och mycket mer.
Eva Kingsepp är fil. dr och verksam vid Stockholms universitet. Hon jobbar för närvarande med ett projekt om populärhistoria och minneskultur kring Nazityskland, andra världskriget och Förintelsen ur ett utomeuropeiskt perspektiv. Tanja Schult är fil. dr och lektor vid Hugo Valentincentrum, Uppsala universitet. Hon har publicerat flertalet artiklar om minnet av Förintelsen i konst och populärkultur samt föreläst i Sverige och utomlands.
The study follows the tradition of Cultural Studies, with a special interest in visual culture, a... more The study follows the tradition of Cultural Studies, with a special interest in visual culture, and examines how history is being represented in different media, how these representations are interpreted by the audience, and how the outcome functions in the individual knowledge-building about this particular era. Here the notion of what is often called a collective, or cultural, memory, is important; both as a vehicle for a dominant discourse on memory and as a counterpart to individual memory, which might be more or less in agreement or opposition with the dominant. A central theme is the examination of how elements of the mythical enters a historical narrative, how they affect this, and how this is being interpreted by the audience. The media texts examined are mostly films (fiction and docudramas as well as documentaries) and computer games, although there are also some examples from role-playing games and alternative popular music. The audience part of the study consists of 11 in-depth interviews and a number of additional informants.
I propose that the media material indicates a convergence between myth in the traditional, religiously connected sense, and in the secularized sense of Roland Barthes. The former is made visible by the persistent use of elements of a clearly metaphysical nature, while the latter is made clear through the almost omnipresent authoritarian character of the media presentations. The material in its entirety clearly shows the importance of transmediality, transmedia storytelling and knowledge communities (cf Henry Jenkins) within the context. The audience examined expresses a highly critical attitude towards what is considered to be a “mainstream” media representation of World War II and Nazi Germany that – according to them – transforms the gruesome historical reality into cheap thrills and entertainment. Thus, it becomes fundamentally problematic to look upon the media representations of the theme as an expression of collective memory.
En av de storsta genrerna inom det idag allt mer vaxande omradet dator- och TV-spel utgors av spe... more En av de storsta genrerna inom det idag allt mer vaxande omradet dator- och TV-spel utgors av spel som pa ett eller annat satt knyter an till andra varldskriget och Nazityskland. Har galler det att inte bara bekampa ondskan i form av nazister utan inte sallan aven deras mardromslika bundsforvanter – zombies, gengangare och andra ohyggliga varelser. Kopplingen mellan nazister, zombies och ockulta krafter over huvud taget finns inte bara i datorspel, utan har varit ett slitstarkt inslag i den vasterlandska popularkulturen under flera decennier. Med utgangspunkt i det populara datorspelet Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001) analyserar detta paper forekomsten av religiost praglad symbolik i popularkulturens representationer av Nazityskland, och undersoker vidare relationerna mellan ett sekulariserat och ett religiost forhallningssatt i fraga om detta.
In my recently (2008) finished PhD study I examined representations of Nazi Germany in today´s po... more In my recently (2008) finished PhD study I examined representations of Nazi Germany in today´s popular culture, and the reception of these, with a special focus on films and computer games. One of the main results is that fact and fiction are constantly being mixed, resulting in what can be characterised as a hyperreal, “fantastic” version of Nazi Germany, with close connections to traditional mythical narratives. However – and surprisingly enough – the study also clearly shows that it is within documentary films that one frequently finds elements of the mythical and the fantastic, including the occult and science fiction, while these are relatively rare in fictional narratives and docudramas. This presentation is based upon parts of my PhD thesis and shows how the mythical and the fantastic enter factual history tv programmes. I also discuss the implications of this for collective memories of Nazi Germany and World War II.
In the case of WWII - and the WWII FPS (First Person Shooter) games that I am studying for my PhD... more In the case of WWII - and the WWII FPS (First Person Shooter) games that I am studying for my PhD thesis - death is a main ingredient, so plain and obvious that you might even slip past it while looking for interesting things to analyse. But, as a number of researchers - for example Zygmunt Bauman - have pointed out: representations of death and changes in these, as well as ways in which we handle death and dying, offer important knowledge about cultural processes and self-understanding in contemporary society. This also accounts for our perception of the body and its symbolism, including aspects of impurity and decay (Bauman 1992, 1993, Douglas 1966, Kristeva 1980, Turner 1996, Ahren Snickare 2002; cf Bakhtin 1965). Obviously, there are important connections to the sphere of myth and religion. As pointed out by Durkheim and others after him, religion and mythical thought are to a large extent present even in so-called secularised societies (Durkheim 1912, Eliade 1957 a, 1957 b, Cas...
In this paper I look at visual representations of World War II, compare them to interviews with w... more In this paper I look at visual representations of World War II, compare them to interviews with what I call “Third Reich enthusiasts” and examine how the media texts and images function in creating a contemporary image of the historical events. WWII games cooperate, in their own way, in the maintenance of our collective memory. Nevertheless, in these games historical facts are not considered as important as excitement, heroes, villains (the dichotomy good/evil), and gothic surroundings. Thus, although claiming historical settings and narratives, they are rather reshaping WWII as a stereotypical event with more connections to popular films than to history in it self.
This paper discusses some of the different meanings appointed to the spiritual centre of Heinrich... more This paper discusses some of the different meanings appointed to the spiritual centre of Heinrich Himmler’s SS in Wewelsburg, including the Black Sun symbol, a floor mosaic in the North Tower of the castle. Wewelsburg castle and more recently the Black Sun have during the last decades become established as a token of Nazi esotericism – or occultism, the term I will use here – both in popular culture and in parts of the western esoteric underground as well as in more or less pro-Nazi circles.The aim of this paper is twofold, both related to the uses of history. The first concerns the basic assumptions about Nazi occultism as a phenomenon in itself. -What are the discursive relations between official memory culture and popular culture regarding Nazi occultism? The second is to look at the Temple of Set, more specifically its Order of the Trapezoid, as an example of how an esoteric group relates to Nazi occultism and puts this, as it is being conceived by leading members of the Order, ...
One rather peculiar, but nevertheless recurrent theme within popular culture representations of N... more One rather peculiar, but nevertheless recurrent theme within popular culture representations of Nazis and World War II, is Nazi zombies. You find them in movies, in novels, computer games and traditional pen-and-paper role-playing games, at least from the 1960´s and up until today. Walking dead Nazi soldiers are lurking in remote, snowy areas of the Bavarian Alps (Night of the Zombies, 1981) and in gloomy Eastern Europe (Outpost, 2008). They are emerging from the deep waters in the Pacific (Shock Waves, 1977) as well as from Lake Totenkopf [sic!] in (again) the Alps (The Illuminatus! Trilogy, 1975). Sometimes the uncannily revived corpses are identified as prominent characters within the Nazi hierarchy: Hitler (in Wolfenstein 3D, 1992), Himmler (in The Spear, 1978, and Vampire The Masquerade: Berlin By Night, 1993), or the fictive head of the historically existing occult Thule Society, Karl Ruprecht Kroenen (in Hellboy, 2004). There are many more examples. Nazi zombies, and other ki...
Symbolism connected to Nazi Germany, World War II and the Holocaust has been used within differen... more Symbolism connected to Nazi Germany, World War II and the Holocaust has been used within different youth subcultures at least since the late 1960´s. The appropriation of Nazi paraphernalia and NS references by the 1970´s punks continued in other ”new wave”-related subcultures. Although there has been countermovements within the subcultures themselves, banning ideological Nazism, the fascination with Nazi symbolism has not waned. Apart from the overtly political White Power, there is today a well-established use of Nazi-related aesthetics especially within Electronic Body Music (EBM) and Industrial, (where it is alledgedly ” de-politicized”); in Neofolk and related genres; and in Black Metal and its extreme subgenre National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM). In this article I examine the use of Nazi-related symbolism in the Black Metal/NSBM subculture, with mainly fan made music videos on YouTube and interviews as empirical material. What meanings are there to be found, and how do these ...
In the last decade, museums have explored and developed digital productions to evoke audience eng... more In the last decade, museums have explored and developed digital productions to evoke audience engagement, often with the intention of enhancing visitors’ experiences. However, theoretical understan ...
National Socialist ideology is founded on an intrinsic relation between Volksgenossen, Volksgemei... more National Socialist ideology is founded on an intrinsic relation between Volksgenossen, Volksgemeinschaft and Volkskorper – national comrades, ethnic community and racial corpus. Its doctrine of the ...
The article examines the relations between mainstream news media and alternative grassroots disco... more The article examines the relations between mainstream news media and alternative grassroots discourse, focusing on the mass murders in Oslo in July 2011 and the controversial Swedish chat room Flas ...
This paper is based upon the later writings of Italian author, director, translator and ambassado... more This paper is based upon the later writings of Italian author, director, translator and ambassador of Italian culture in Sweden, Giacomo Oreglia (1923-2007) and the concept of the Anarch. I will first present this in relation to the quest that Oreglia had set out on, in which he intended to proclaim a spiritual world revolution, following Dante, da Fiore and the adamites. Secondly I will put this in contrast with what, and with whom, Oreglia fiercely denounces as a false anarch, namely the use of this concept by Ernst Junger.
The esoteric side of the Nazi German Third Reich is subject to numerous media representations. In... more The esoteric side of the Nazi German Third Reich is subject to numerous media representations. In my paper I discuss the topic mainly from the view of documentary films, popular movies and computer games. One of the findings in my PhD study, dealing with the Third Reich in today´s popular culture, is that the esoteric, the occult, the gothic and the uncanny are to a large extent contributing to the shaping of a popular conception of the historical Nazi Germany. It is also proposing an explanation where the evil deeds performed by the Nazis to a large extent are either made possible by, or the direct result of, their engagement in a ”false, heathen religion” or even Devil worship and black magic.
This paper is not so much about global divides in a geographical, horizontal sense, as it is abou... more This paper is not so much about global divides in a geographical, horizontal sense, as it is about differences on a vertical scale: a world within our own, yet unknown to most of us. I am referring to the protocommunity of World War II “enthusiasts”, such as war gamers and militaria collectors. These are people sharing a big interest in WWII, sometimes being labelled “war romantics”. Smelser & Davies have in a recent work (The Myth of the Eastern Front. The Nazi-Soviet War in American Popular Culture, 2008) included a chapter on this group, although they have had no personal contact with the people they are discussing, basing their study entirely on Internet forums and home pages. I argue that due to this reluctance to go out in the field, the authors have missed several important aspects crucial to the understanding of these people and their attitudes towards WWII and the mediated representation of Nazi Germany and the war. My paper is based on ethnographic material gathered for my...
Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association Tba San Francisco Ca May 23 2007, 2007
In this paper I look at visual representations of World War II, compare them to interviews with w... more In this paper I look at visual representations of World War II, compare them to interviews with what I call Third Reich enthusiasts and examine how the media texts and images function in creating a contemporary image of the historical events. WWII games cooperate, in their ...
Paper presented at the Ninth Biennial Conference of the International Gothic Association: Monstro... more Paper presented at the Ninth Biennial Conference of the International Gothic Association: Monstrous media/ Spectral subjects, Lancaster University, UK, 21-24 July 2009
"Killing machine, moralist or in-between? On the construction of the heroic warrior in computer g... more "Killing machine, moralist or in-between? On the construction of the heroic warrior in computer games and feature films"
Language: Swedish. No translation available.
With Merja Ellefson. Chapter in edited volume: pp. 203--222 in Kristina Riegert (ed.) News of the... more With Merja Ellefson. Chapter in edited volume: pp. 203--222 in Kristina Riegert (ed.) News of the Other. Tracing Identity in Scandinavian Constructions of the Eastern Baltic Sea Region. Göteborg: Nordicom 2004.
Chapter in edited volume: pp. 409--425 in Thomas, Tanja & Fabian Virchow (Hg.) Banal Militarism. ... more Chapter in edited volume: pp. 409--425 in Thomas, Tanja & Fabian Virchow (Hg.) Banal Militarism. Zur Veralltäglichung des Militärischen im Zivilen. Bielefeld: Transcript 2005
Chapter in edited volume: Herbrechter, Stefan & Michael Higgins (eds.) Returning (to) Communities... more Chapter in edited volume: Herbrechter, Stefan & Michael Higgins (eds.) Returning (to) Communities. Theory, Culture and Political Practice of the Communal. Amsterdam/New York, NY: Rodopi 2006
This essay is based on a reception study I have made of four Swedish men who all but one have World War II/Nazi Germany as their greatest interest. Using Fiske's concept of "shadow cultural economy" I examine what turned out to be a form of fan community around WWII. Two of these men are into WWII role-play and strategy games, meeting with other "Nazi-fans" sharing the same interests and hobbies. This means that they have been forced to consider the ethical aspects of their hobby for being able to legitimate it both to others but perhaps even more to themselves.
Chapter in edited volume: pp. 202-217 in Fyhr, Mattias & Per Faxneld (eds.): Förborgade tecken: e... more Chapter in edited volume: pp. 202-217 in Fyhr, Mattias & Per Faxneld (eds.): Förborgade tecken: esoterism i västerländsk litteratur. Umeå: h:ström – Text & Kultur 2010.
Language: Swedish. No translation available.
Chapter in edited volume: pp. 29-52 in Abbenhuis-Ash, Maartje & Sara Buttsworth (eds.) Monsters i... more Chapter in edited volume: pp. 29-52 in Abbenhuis-Ash, Maartje & Sara Buttsworth (eds.) Monsters in the Mirror: Representations of Nazism in Popular Culture. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger 2010
Who needs the four horsemen when we have Hitler and the SS? Over the last sixty years the epic battle between ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’ has had biblical proportions, weaponry ancient, twentieth-century and futuristic, and is populated with Nazi demons both ‘real’ and imagined.. Popular depictions of especially Hitler and the SS contains striking elements of the mythical, both in a traditional, religiously connected sense and in a modern, secular, way as described by Roland Barthes. Through a process of myth convergence, traditional myth merges with naturalised ideology thereby acquiring the authority of the latter, and a certain unassailability. There are close connections between myth in the modern sense and collective memory, which in this case makes the myth convergence especially interesting. The concept of convergence is also important in transmedia storytelling (Jenkins 2006), a phenomenon that has become an important part in popular knowledge building surrounding Hitler, Nazi Germany and WWII. Cinematic and literary repressentatsions – fact as well as fiction – merge with expressions in and, when it comes to the construction of meaning within the audience, impressions from other media and mediated subcultural forms: digital games, internet home pages, blogs and discussion forums, comic books, art, music, table-top role-playing games. subcultural fashion, Nazi memorabilia collecting, live role-playing and historical reenactment. I argue that although difficult to grasp in its entirety, this whole field must be taken into consideration when trying to understand the phenomenon of Nazi Germany as a constant signifier in popular culture, including in the construction of popular memory. There are certain basic symbolic elements that recur almost everywhere in the field, which makes it possible not only to trace but also to define a popular symbolic paradigm based on Hitler and his Third Reich.
When this popular paradigm is combined with the syntagm of historical events, the result is one prevailing ‘mainstream’ narrative where the forces of Good and Evil meet in an apocalyptic battle, and Hitler and the SS fill the roles of the modern Devil and his demons. This phenomenon is common in a wide range of enterprises from World War II computer games and Hollywood movies, to documentaries and ‘historical’ reconstructions on the Discovery and History tv channels, to the more “narrow” fields of role-playing games and conspiracy/occult discussion forums on the Internet. There also exists what could be labelled as a countermovement within the audience, where historically interested people are highly sceptical of “mainstream” images and are using different kinds of media in their search for “the real truth”. Whether myth-building or truth-questing, audiences are active in their production of wider meaning, and in the maelstrom of media surrounding the minions of hell.
Chapter in edited volume: pp. 303-323 in Malliet, Steven & Karolien Poels (eds.) Vice City Virtue... more Chapter in edited volume: pp. 303-323 in Malliet, Steven & Karolien Poels (eds.) Vice City Virtue: Moral Issues in Digital Game Play. Leuwen: Acco Academic 2011.
During the research for my 2008 PhD thesis I made several interviews with people into WWII gaming, both digital and classical table-top board games, and asked them about their hobby as well as about their reception of other mediated representations of Nazi Germany and WWII. They all made a clear distinction between realistic and fantastic, and several of them considered Nazis in fantastic games and movies to be the best enemy whatsoever: “nothing can beat killing evil Nazis!” However, when considering the realistic, they were much more aware of ethical issues, and often also showed empathy for the “ordinary German soldier”.
When the now classic Wolfenstein 3D first person shooter was released in 1992, people were upset because the gamer would be killing dogs in the game. Otherwise, it seemed to be no moral problem whatsoever with slaughtering Nazis. Some years later, in Medal of Honor: Underground (2000), Allied Assault and Frontline (2002), the enemy was defined primarily by his ethnicity: everyone in a German uniform or just spoke German was to be exterminated, otherwise the gamer would not be able to reach the highest score. In their marketing Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Frontline claimed to offer the most authentic experience of WWII possible, which is interesting especially considering the way they define the enemy. However, although the fantastic sequel to Wolfenstein 3D, Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001), did not claim to offer any authenticity, in a way it was actually more realistic than the Medal of Honor games, as it contains both “good” and “evil” Germans. This is further elaborated upon in the 2009 Wolfenstein, where the German resistance plays an important part of the narrative.
As Tzvetan Todorov (and others) points out, the fantastic offers ways of exploring phenomena that are otherwise considered dangerous, taboo and outright forbidden by society. This is illustrated in the Wolfenstein games by the inclusion of Nazi experiments on humans, resulting in a kind of zombie/cyborg monsters used as soldiers. The concept of Nazi zombies is also present in Call of Duty: World at War (2009), a game otherwise considered to be of the supposedly “authentic” kind. Normally, there is no representation whatsoever of the Holocaust or related topics in WWII games. One might argue that by avoiding this, the games are contributing to a banalisation of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. On the other hand, an inclusion of such themes in a gaming context would certainly not be considered appropriate.
The article will begin with an overview of the WWII FPS genre and how these games are dealing with ethical questions connected to war in general, as well as with atrocities historically committed by the Nazis. Focus will then turn to the fantastic games within this genre (mainly the Wolfenstein series, but also BloodRayne and ÜberSoldier), with an examination of the binaries realistic/fantastic in the games Wolfenstein and the Nazi zombie part of Call of Duty (“Nacht der Untoten”). I will especially pay attention to the way the fantastic genre offers specific possibilities to explore and deal with these issues, compared to “realistic” games.
As a strongly mythical character is common in popular representations of World War II, which is often depicted in terms of an apocalyptic battle between the forces of Good and of Evil, it is difficult to avoid a theological point of view. However, I will begin with some more basic questions, dealing with the justification of the gamer´s actions. By what characteristics is the enemy defined? How is the relation German/Nazi being dealt with, and what are the consequences? What other ethnic groups are there, how are they being represented, and what function do they have? How is the killing of enemies being justified? When present, what does the Nazi zombie soldier represent, and what it its function? How can this be related to the cultural memory of Nazi Germany, World War II and the Holocaust?
Conference paper and later chapter in edited volume: “Web hate, social and mainstream media: ‘Why... more Conference paper and later chapter in edited volume: “Web hate, social and mainstream media: ‘Why Anders Behring Breivik is (not) a hero’”, in Barkho, Leon (ed.) From Theory to Practice: How to Assess, Measure and Apply Impartiality in News and Current Affairs. Bristol: Intellect 2013
This paper is dealing with the relations between mainstream news media and “grassroots” discourse, focusing on the mass murders in Oslo in July 2011 and the controversial Swedish web forum Flashback. Flashback is known as a place where one can rapidly find detailed (more or less correct) information about recent events and the people involved in them. It is also an open forum where all kinds of topics are being discussed, not seldom including expressions of values and ideas that are considered offensive and/or “politically incorrect”. The Oslo events were followed by a media debate about hate speech in the commentaries on news media web sites and forums such as Flashback, in which it has been argued that the latter provides fertile grounds for hate speech and consequently also hateful actions.
I am interested in how “web hate” is affecting impartiality in the Swedish discourse on news and current affairs. The material consists of newspaper articles as well as one of the most controversial threads on Flashback, “Varför Anders Behring Breivik är en hjälte” (“Why Anders Behring Breivik is a hero”).
One of my two chapters in the edited volume "Die Wewelsburg, NS-inspirierte Okkultur und die Komm... more One of my two chapters in the edited volume "Die Wewelsburg, NS-inspirierte Okkultur und die Kommerzialisierung des Bösen" and "Tatsachenbasierte Nazi-Exploitation: Dokumentarfilme zum „Nazi-Okkultismus", in John-Stucke, Kirsten, & Daniela Siepe (Hg.), Mythos Wewelsburg. Fakten und Legenden, Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2015
In my PhD dissertation (2008) I have showed how the depiction of especially Hitler and the SS in ... more In my PhD dissertation (2008) I have showed how the depiction of especially Hitler and the SS in post-war popular culture contains striking elements of the mythical, both in a traditional, religiou ...
This paper is dealing with the relations between mainstream news media and “grassroots” discourse... more This paper is dealing with the relations between mainstream news media and “grassroots” discourse, focusing on the mass murders in Oslo in July 2011 and the controversial Swedish web forum Flashback. Flashback is known as a place where one can rapidly find detailed (more or less correct) information about recent events and the people involved in them. It is also an open forum where all kinds of topics are being discussed, not seldom including expressions of values and ideas that are considered offensive and/or “politically incorrect”. The Oslo events were followed by a media debate about hate speech in the commentaries on news media web sites and forums such as Flashback, in which it has been argued that the latter provides fertile grounds for hate speech and consequently also hateful actions. I am interested in how “web hate” is affecting impartiality in the Swedish discourse on news and current affairs. The material consists of newspaper articles as well as one of the most controv...
Although the paranormal and the occult are today integral parts of mainstream popular culture (Hi... more Although the paranormal and the occult are today integral parts of mainstream popular culture (Hill 2011; McIlwain 2005; Partridge 2004), there are indications of the old division between 'high' an ...
From editorial:
Eva Kingsepp’s article /…/ discusses remediation and users’ engagement with digit... more From editorial: Eva Kingsepp’s article /…/ discusses remediation and users’ engagement with digital genres. It also continues what has come to be a prominent theme in Human IT: digital game studies. In brief, Kingsepp looks at computer and video World War II games, and in particular the crucial issues of immersion, simulation and representation, where the fresh concept of ‘immersive historicity’ is central to her discussion. The games enable users to reenact history while being able to change its outcome. Kingsepp picks up a couple of threads from Bolter and Grusin’s book on remediation to spin a fascinating web around WWII games, noting for instance how sound signs are used to create immediacy. She also suggests Baudrillard’s concepts of hyperreality and simulacra as analytical tools in WWII game studies, as these games display simulations that do not represent an artefactual reality but rather a mythological conception of reality. At the conference presentation, someone in the audience suggested that the users of these games will end up with a twisted sense of history as a result of the set of potential variants, one as ‘real’ or plausible as the other. Personally, I would hesitate to ascribe such an automatical ahistoricity to users. On the contrary, the games might trigger users to get acquainted with “the real” history and to find out what indeed happened during WWII.
To describe the virtual worlds of digital games as hyperreal and simulacra has become almost a cl... more To describe the virtual worlds of digital games as hyperreal and simulacra has become almost a cliché. The perfect copy without an original, complete and even flowing over with signs adding to its real appearance but simultaneously disguising a basic loss of referentials—many of the games can be looked on as substitutes for the real world (if there is such a thing). In this article, I use World War II digital games as examples of hyperrealities, using some of Baudrillard's thoughts on hyperreality and simulacra, on our relation to history and on what he considers to be a fundamental longing for reality that has been lost to us in (post)modern Western society.
Article, pp. 23-34 in Folkvett no 1, 2011 (published by Föreningen Vetenskap och Folkbildning, ht... more Article, pp. 23-34 in Folkvett no 1, 2011 (published by Föreningen Vetenskap och Folkbildning, http://www.vof.se/visa-folkvett)
Language: Swedish. No translation available.
To describe the virtual worlds of digital games as hyperreal and simulacra has become almost a cl... more To describe the virtual worlds of digital games as hyperreal and simulacra has become almost a cliché. The perfect copy without an original, complete and even flowing over with signs adding to its real appearance but simultaneously disguising a basic loss of referentials—many of the games can be looked on as substitutes for the real world (if there is such a thing). In this article, I use World War II digital games as examples of hyperrealities, using some of Baudrillard's thoughts on hyperreality and simulacra, on our relation to history and on what he considers to be a fundamental longing for reality that has been lost to us in (post)modern Western society.
En närmast outslitlig arketyp utgörs av hjälten: en med extraordinära egenskaper begåvad karaktär... more En närmast outslitlig arketyp utgörs av hjälten: en med extraordinära egenskaper begåvad karaktär som kämpar för det goda. Inom västvärldens populärkultur kan det också tyckas finnas något av en standardmall för denne: en riktig hjälte är vit, man, och går ut i strid för att ställa ...
The article addresses the function of (post)colonial nostalgia in a context of multidirectional m... more The article addresses the function of (post)colonial nostalgia in a context of multidirectional memory (Rothberg 2009) in contemporary Europe. How can different cultural memories of the Second Word War be put into respectful dialogue with each other? The text is based on a contrapuntal reading (Said 1994) of British and Egyptian popular narratives, mainly British documentary films about the North Africa Campaign, but also feature films and novels, and data from qualitative interviews collected during ethnographic fieldwork in Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt, during visits 2013–2015. The study highlights the considerable differences between the British and Egyptian narratives, but also the significant similarities regarding the use and function of nostalgia. In addition, the Egyptian narrative expresses a profound cosmopolitan nostalgia and a longing for what is regarded as Egypt’s lost, modern Golden Age, identified as the decades before the nation’s fundamental change from western-orie...
Human IT: Journal for Information Technology Studies as a Human Science, 2006
In this article I examine the potential feeling of time travel – historical immersion – in the Wo... more In this article I examine the potential feeling of time travel – historical immersion – in the World War II games Medal of Honor: Underground, Medal of Honor: Frontline, Wolfenstein 3D and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. To accomplish this, I make a semiotic analysis of visual and auditory signs based upon the three categories of space, time, and sound. I also consider the element of myth to be an influencing factor. WWII games contribute, in their own way, to our collective memory. Nevertheless, in these games historical facts are not considered as important as excitement, heroes, villains (the dichotomy good/evil), and gothic surroundings. Thus, although they claim to have historical settings and narratives, they are rather reshaping WWII as a stereotypical event with more connections to popular films than to actual historical events.
Dieser Aufsatz diskutiert einige der verschiedenen Bedeutungen, die dem spirituellen Zentrum von ... more Dieser Aufsatz diskutiert einige der verschiedenen Bedeutungen, die dem spirituellen Zentrum von Heinrich Himmlers SS in Wewelsburg, einschlieslich des Symbols der Schwarzen Sonne, einem Bodenmosai ...
>> To describe the virtual worlds of digital games as hyperreal and simulacra has become al... more >> To describe the virtual worlds of digital games as hyperreal and simulacra has become almost a cliche. The perfect copy without an original, complete and even flowing over with signs adding to its real appearance but simultaneously disguising a basic loss of referentials—many of the games can be looked on as substitutes for the real world (if there is such a thing). In this article, I use World War II digital games as examples of hyperrealities, using some of Baudrillard’s thoughts on hyperreality and simulacra, on our relation to history and on what he considers to be a fundamental longing for reality that has been lost to us in (post)modern Western society.
En narmast outslitlig arketyp utgors av hjalten: en med extraordinara egenskaper begavad karaktar... more En narmast outslitlig arketyp utgors av hjalten: en med extraordinara egenskaper begavad karaktar som kampar for det goda. Inom vastvarldens popularkultur kan det ocksa tyckas finnas nagot av en st ...
This article presents an action-research study investigating a spatially sensitive innovation pro... more This article presents an action-research study investigating a spatially sensitive innovation process of place-based experiences in a rural area of Sweden. Lately, there have been a growing number of initiatives focused on developing location-aware mobile media – geomedia technologies – to offer place-based digital experiences within tourism. Drawing on contemporary critical studies on geomedia technologies, we stress the importance of reflecting upon the implications of place-based technologies to minimise both the negative impacts on a place and the neglect of local perspectives. We conducted action-research interventions to unpack the complexity of developing place-based mediated experiences. The study makes an illustrative case of how interventions lead to more nuanced development processes of geomedia technologies while simultaneously fostering creativity. We argue that as action research allows researchers to intervene in media innovations, it identifies models for more nuance...
Ariès - Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, 2019
A review of Eric Kurlander, Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third
Reich, New H... more A review of Eric Kurlander, Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third
Reich, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2017.
Hitler’s Monsters does indeed present a supernatural history of the Third Reich,
as it has more in common with the literary genre of magical realism than with
conventional history writing. A benevolent reading might interpret its numerous
flaws as unfortunate errors that ought to have been detected by the reviewers
and the responsible editor(s), but somehow managed to pass all these control
stations. Although important questions need to be asked about how, and
why, Yale University Press considered this book suitable for publication, I leave
that part of the examination to others. I have here chosen not to debunk any of
the exaggerated speculations that permeate the narrative, as that would require
a book of its own. Instead, after a brief account of the book’s narrative content,
regarded as part of contemporary occulture, the rest of this article discusses
its form as part of scientific discourse, with focus on the author’s treatment of
his referenced sources being misinterpreted and/or distorted in order to support
the narrative.
Magister Thesis in Media and communication, Stockholm University, JMK, 2000.
This is a recepti... more Magister Thesis in Media and communication, Stockholm University, JMK, 2000.
This is a reception analysis of TV documentary films about Nazi Germany and the Second World War, based on in-depth interviews with Swedish viewers.
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Books by Eva Kingsepp
I antologin Hitler für alle diskuteras begrepp som historiemedvetande, historiebruk, och minneskultur liksom politisk korrekthet, tabun och naziskämt. Syftet är att ur ett brett och tvärvetenskapligt perspektiv ställa frågor och problematisera kring populärkulturens referenser till Nazityskland, andra världskriget och Förintelsen. Vi möter Niels Bondes Hitlerkatt, bilden som utgör omslaget, seriehunden Rocky som utsätts för censur, provokatörer som använt nazistsymbolen och mycket mer.
Eva Kingsepp är fil. dr och verksam vid Stockholms universitet. Hon jobbar för närvarande med ett projekt om populärhistoria och minneskultur kring Nazityskland, andra världskriget och Förintelsen ur ett utomeuropeiskt perspektiv. Tanja Schult är fil. dr och lektor vid Hugo Valentincentrum, Uppsala universitet. Hon har publicerat flertalet artiklar om minnet av Förintelsen i konst och populärkultur samt föreläst i Sverige och utomlands.
I propose that the media material indicates a convergence between myth in the traditional, religiously connected sense, and in the secularized sense of Roland Barthes. The former is made visible by the persistent use of elements of a clearly metaphysical nature, while the latter is made clear through the almost omnipresent authoritarian character of the media presentations. The material in its entirety clearly shows the importance of transmediality, transmedia storytelling and knowledge communities (cf Henry Jenkins) within the context. The audience examined expresses a highly critical attitude towards what is considered to be a “mainstream” media representation of World War II and Nazi Germany that – according to them – transforms the gruesome historical reality into cheap thrills and entertainment. Thus, it becomes fundamentally problematic to look upon the media representations of the theme as an expression of collective memory.
Conference papers by Eva Kingsepp
I antologin Hitler für alle diskuteras begrepp som historiemedvetande, historiebruk, och minneskultur liksom politisk korrekthet, tabun och naziskämt. Syftet är att ur ett brett och tvärvetenskapligt perspektiv ställa frågor och problematisera kring populärkulturens referenser till Nazityskland, andra världskriget och Förintelsen. Vi möter Niels Bondes Hitlerkatt, bilden som utgör omslaget, seriehunden Rocky som utsätts för censur, provokatörer som använt nazistsymbolen och mycket mer.
Eva Kingsepp är fil. dr och verksam vid Stockholms universitet. Hon jobbar för närvarande med ett projekt om populärhistoria och minneskultur kring Nazityskland, andra världskriget och Förintelsen ur ett utomeuropeiskt perspektiv. Tanja Schult är fil. dr och lektor vid Hugo Valentincentrum, Uppsala universitet. Hon har publicerat flertalet artiklar om minnet av Förintelsen i konst och populärkultur samt föreläst i Sverige och utomlands.
I propose that the media material indicates a convergence between myth in the traditional, religiously connected sense, and in the secularized sense of Roland Barthes. The former is made visible by the persistent use of elements of a clearly metaphysical nature, while the latter is made clear through the almost omnipresent authoritarian character of the media presentations. The material in its entirety clearly shows the importance of transmediality, transmedia storytelling and knowledge communities (cf Henry Jenkins) within the context. The audience examined expresses a highly critical attitude towards what is considered to be a “mainstream” media representation of World War II and Nazi Germany that – according to them – transforms the gruesome historical reality into cheap thrills and entertainment. Thus, it becomes fundamentally problematic to look upon the media representations of the theme as an expression of collective memory.
Language: Swedish. No translation available.
This essay is based on a reception study I have made of four Swedish men who all but one have World War II/Nazi Germany as their greatest interest. Using Fiske's concept of "shadow cultural economy" I examine what turned out to be a form of fan community around WWII. Two of these men are into WWII role-play and strategy games, meeting with other "Nazi-fans" sharing the same interests and hobbies. This means that they have been forced to consider the ethical aspects of their hobby for being able to legitimate it both to others but perhaps even more to themselves.
Language: Swedish. No translation available.
Who needs the four horsemen when we have Hitler and the SS? Over the last sixty years the epic battle between ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’ has had biblical proportions, weaponry ancient, twentieth-century and futuristic, and is populated with Nazi demons both ‘real’ and imagined.. Popular depictions of especially Hitler and the SS contains striking elements of the mythical, both in a traditional, religiously connected sense and in a modern, secular, way as described by Roland Barthes. Through a process of myth convergence, traditional myth merges with naturalised ideology thereby acquiring the authority of the latter, and a certain unassailability. There are close connections between myth in the modern sense and collective memory, which in this case makes the myth convergence especially interesting. The concept of convergence is also important in transmedia storytelling (Jenkins 2006), a phenomenon that has become an important part in popular knowledge building surrounding Hitler, Nazi Germany and WWII. Cinematic and literary repressentatsions – fact as well as fiction – merge with expressions in and, when it comes to the construction of meaning within the audience, impressions from other media and mediated subcultural forms: digital games, internet home pages, blogs and discussion forums, comic books, art, music, table-top role-playing games. subcultural fashion, Nazi memorabilia collecting, live role-playing and historical reenactment. I argue that although difficult to grasp in its entirety, this whole field must be taken into consideration when trying to understand the phenomenon of Nazi Germany as a constant signifier in popular culture, including in the construction of popular memory. There are certain basic symbolic elements that recur almost everywhere in the field, which makes it possible not only to trace but also to define a popular symbolic paradigm based on Hitler and his Third Reich.
When this popular paradigm is combined with the syntagm of historical events, the result is one prevailing ‘mainstream’ narrative where the forces of Good and Evil meet in an apocalyptic battle, and Hitler and the SS fill the roles of the modern Devil and his demons. This phenomenon is common in a wide range of enterprises from World War II computer games and Hollywood movies, to documentaries and ‘historical’ reconstructions on the Discovery and History tv channels, to the more “narrow” fields of role-playing games and conspiracy/occult discussion forums on the Internet. There also exists what could be labelled as a countermovement within the audience, where historically interested people are highly sceptical of “mainstream” images and are using different kinds of media in their search for “the real truth”. Whether myth-building or truth-questing, audiences are active in their production of wider meaning, and in the maelstrom of media surrounding the minions of hell.
Language: Swedish. No translation available.
During the research for my 2008 PhD thesis I made several interviews with people into WWII gaming, both digital and classical table-top board games, and asked them about their hobby as well as about their reception of other mediated representations of Nazi Germany and WWII. They all made a clear distinction between realistic and fantastic, and several of them considered Nazis in fantastic games and movies to be the best enemy whatsoever: “nothing can beat killing evil Nazis!” However, when considering the realistic, they were much more aware of ethical issues, and often also showed empathy for the “ordinary German soldier”.
When the now classic Wolfenstein 3D first person shooter was released in 1992, people were upset because the gamer would be killing dogs in the game. Otherwise, it seemed to be no moral problem whatsoever with slaughtering Nazis. Some years later, in Medal of Honor: Underground (2000), Allied Assault and Frontline (2002), the enemy was defined primarily by his ethnicity: everyone in a German uniform or just spoke German was to be exterminated, otherwise the gamer would not be able to reach the highest score. In their marketing Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Frontline claimed to offer the most authentic experience of WWII possible, which is interesting especially considering the way they define the enemy. However, although the fantastic sequel to Wolfenstein 3D, Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001), did not claim to offer any authenticity, in a way it was actually more realistic than the Medal of Honor games, as it contains both “good” and “evil” Germans. This is further elaborated upon in the 2009 Wolfenstein, where the German resistance plays an important part of the narrative.
As Tzvetan Todorov (and others) points out, the fantastic offers ways of exploring phenomena that are otherwise considered dangerous, taboo and outright forbidden by society. This is illustrated in the Wolfenstein games by the inclusion of Nazi experiments on humans, resulting in a kind of zombie/cyborg monsters used as soldiers. The concept of Nazi zombies is also present in Call of Duty: World at War (2009), a game otherwise considered to be of the supposedly “authentic” kind. Normally, there is no representation whatsoever of the Holocaust or related topics in WWII games. One might argue that by avoiding this, the games are contributing to a banalisation of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. On the other hand, an inclusion of such themes in a gaming context would certainly not be considered appropriate.
The article will begin with an overview of the WWII FPS genre and how these games are dealing with ethical questions connected to war in general, as well as with atrocities historically committed by the Nazis. Focus will then turn to the fantastic games within this genre (mainly the Wolfenstein series, but also BloodRayne and ÜberSoldier), with an examination of the binaries realistic/fantastic in the games Wolfenstein and the Nazi zombie part of Call of Duty (“Nacht der Untoten”). I will especially pay attention to the way the fantastic genre offers specific possibilities to explore and deal with these issues, compared to “realistic” games.
As a strongly mythical character is common in popular representations of World War II, which is often depicted in terms of an apocalyptic battle between the forces of Good and of Evil, it is difficult to avoid a theological point of view. However, I will begin with some more basic questions, dealing with the justification of the gamer´s actions. By what characteristics is the enemy defined? How is the relation German/Nazi being dealt with, and what are the consequences? What other ethnic groups are there, how are they being represented, and what function do they have? How is the killing of enemies being justified? When present, what does the Nazi zombie soldier represent, and what it its function? How can this be related to the cultural memory of Nazi Germany, World War II and the Holocaust?
This paper is dealing with the relations between mainstream news media and “grassroots” discourse, focusing on the mass murders in Oslo in July 2011 and the controversial Swedish web forum Flashback. Flashback is known as a place where one can rapidly find detailed (more or less correct) information about recent events and the people involved in them. It is also an open forum where all kinds of topics are being discussed, not seldom including expressions of values and ideas that are considered offensive and/or “politically incorrect”. The Oslo events were followed by a media debate about hate speech in the commentaries on news media web sites and forums such as Flashback, in which it has been argued that the latter provides fertile grounds for hate speech and consequently also hateful actions.
I am interested in how “web hate” is affecting impartiality in the Swedish discourse on news and current affairs. The material consists of newspaper articles as well as one of the most controversial threads on Flashback, “Varför Anders Behring Breivik är en hjälte” (“Why Anders Behring Breivik is a hero”).
Eva Kingsepp’s article /…/ discusses remediation and users’ engagement with digital genres. It also continues what has come to be a prominent theme in Human IT: digital game studies. In brief, Kingsepp looks at computer and video World War II games, and in particular the crucial issues of immersion, simulation and representation, where the fresh concept of ‘immersive historicity’ is central to her discussion. The games enable users to reenact history while being able to change its outcome. Kingsepp picks up a couple of threads from Bolter and Grusin’s book on remediation to spin a fascinating web around WWII games, noting for instance how sound signs are used to create immediacy. She also suggests Baudrillard’s concepts of hyperreality and simulacra as analytical tools in WWII game studies, as these games display simulations that do not represent an artefactual reality but rather a mythological conception of reality. At the conference presentation, someone in the audience suggested that the users of these games will end up with a twisted sense of history as a result of the set of potential variants, one as ‘real’ or plausible as the other. Personally, I would hesitate to ascribe such an automatical ahistoricity to users. On the contrary, the games might trigger users to get acquainted with “the real” history and to find out what indeed happened during WWII.
Key Words: hyperreal • simulacra • history • myth • utopia • carnivalesque
Language: Swedish. No translation available.
Reich, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2017.
Hitler’s Monsters does indeed present a supernatural history of the Third Reich,
as it has more in common with the literary genre of magical realism than with
conventional history writing. A benevolent reading might interpret its numerous
flaws as unfortunate errors that ought to have been detected by the reviewers
and the responsible editor(s), but somehow managed to pass all these control
stations. Although important questions need to be asked about how, and
why, Yale University Press considered this book suitable for publication, I leave
that part of the examination to others. I have here chosen not to debunk any of
the exaggerated speculations that permeate the narrative, as that would require
a book of its own. Instead, after a brief account of the book’s narrative content,
regarded as part of contemporary occulture, the rest of this article discusses
its form as part of scientific discourse, with focus on the author’s treatment of
his referenced sources being misinterpreted and/or distorted in order to support
the narrative.
This is a reception analysis of TV documentary films about Nazi Germany and the Second World War, based on in-depth interviews with Swedish viewers.
Language: Swedish, no translation available.