Germany 1945: Views of War and Violence

摘要

The paperback edition of Dagmar Barnouw's successful and hotly debated book of 1996 coincided with the year of her untimely death. In many respects, this and Barnouw's later works, applied analytical strategies of the field of Visual Studies to a time period that had been long overlooked: the weeks and months following the defeat of Germany. The author looks in depth at a cross-section of the countless images taken by three groups of photographers: the US Army Signal Corps; the British Army; and German civilians. She questions the meaning that was attached to those photographs for decades, and uncovers through her semiotic analysis the constructiveness of the images and their assigned meaning. 'The photo image retains messages that have eluded the selecting choice, the interpretive control of the photographer' (p. XII). Barnouw sets out to investigate those images that 'can ... contribute to a less selective, less exclusive historical memory' (p. XII).