German cinema-- terror and trauma : cultural memory since 1945 / Thomas Elsaesser.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: terror and trauma -- Terror, trauma, parapraxis. Terror & trauma: Siamese twins of the political discourse -- Holocaust and German cinema: the burden of representation -- The poetics and politics of parapraxis -- Back box: the RAF thirty years after -- Parapractic poetics in German films and cinema. Rescued in vain: parapraxis and deferred action in Konrad Wolf's Stars -- The persistent resistance of Alexander Kluge -- Memory and historicity: the year 1979 and Fassbinder's third generation -- Mourning and masquerade: Herbert Achternbusch's The last hole -- Re-wind after re-play: Harun Farocki's Respite -- Trauma theory reconsidered. From mastering the past to guilt management -- Postscript to trauma theory.