Narrating Germany Time, Space and the German Village

<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems School of Social Sciences</strong> <strong>CSSS Colloquium</strong> <strong>Prof. Sadhana Naithani</strong> Centre of German Studies, JNU a paper on <strong>Narrating Germany Time, Space and the German Village</strong> Date : <strong>March 17, 2016 </strong> <strong>Abstract:</strong> My ongoing research concerns narratives of time and space in German villages. Since 2013 I have been conducting field work in villages near the University town of Göttingen. Beginning with the question what is the meaning of a village and village life in a highly industrialized society I have explored memories of the immediate post WWII times and the changes that followed in the restructuring of the village life and the way community life is constructed and experienced when both agriculture and religion – the two monumental factors that defined village life until the middle of the 20th century – have lost their position in society. Theoretically, this research constitutes 'turning the gaze', because there is no intellectual tradition of non-Europeans writing ethnographies or cultural anthropologies of European societies and culture. Ethnographic Documentary Film Village Tales 1 (2013/HD/24mins.) A Film by Sadhana Naithani and Sudheer Gupta* The central question that the film poses is: what is the meaning of village and village life in a highly industrialized country like Germany? It tells the history of Reinhausen since the end of World War II in 1945 through the narratives of the residents of the village about their past and present lives and concerns. The film shows how new forms of community are emerging and redefining the notion of community itself. *Sudheer Gupta is an alumnus of JNU and FTII and an internationally renowned documentary filmmaker. Bio : Professor Sadhana Naithani teaches language, literature and folklore at the Centre of German Studies, JNU. Her PhD was on German folksongs, titled "Politics of Love" (1994). Her post doc research on colonialism and folklore is considered pioneering and also credited with having established the role of Indian scholars in colonial folklore collections of William Crooke. She is the author of In Quest of Indian Folktales (Indiana University Press, 2006); The Story-Time of the British Empire (University Press of Mississippi, 2010); Folklore-Theory in Postwar Germany(University Press of Mississippi, 2014). Her latest publication a short novel called Elephantine(Red Squirrel Press, UK, 2016).