Melodrama and nazi postmemory. The paradigmatic case of Generation War (2013)

• Autores: Frago, Marta, Noguera, Maria
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2025
• Institución: Universidad de Piura
• Repositorio: Revista de Comunicación
• Lenguaje: español
• OAI Identifier: oai:revistas.udep.edu.pe:article/3733
• Enlace del recurso: https://revistadecomunicacion.com/article/view/3733
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Memoria colectiva; Posmemoria; nazismo; II Guerra Mundial; Melodrama; Emoción; Trauma; TV alemana; Miniseries; Hijos del Tercer Reich; Collective Memory; Postmemory; Nazism; Worl War II; Emotion; German TV; miniseries; Generation War

The article analyzes the series Generation War (Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter, 2013) to explore how melodramatic fiction contributes to the collective memory of Nazi Germany as Holocaust witnesses gradually disappear. A content analysis of the series’ three episodes is based on the hypothesis that emotional narratives can influence the preservation of memories and intergenerational dialogue about Hitler’s crimes. This analysis employs nine categories derived from the literature on audiovisual melodramatic modes: victim-characters, threatening forces, nostalgia, spaces of innocence, suspense, redemptive death, narrative logic disruptions, random fate, and moral reading pact. The findings show that Generation War incorporates these emotional elements to present a representation that combines both critique and understanding of the Nazi past. This demonstrates that melodrama can overcome criticisms of historical distortion, given the crucial role of emotion as an effective tool for keeping the memory of traumatic episodes alive.