Offers not only an analytical study of the films of Herzog, perhaps the
most famous living German filmmaker, but also a new reading of
Romanticism's impact beyond the nineteenth century and in the present.
Werner Herzog (b. 1942) is perhaps the most famous living German
filmmaker, but his films have never been read in the context of German
cultural history. And while there is a surfeit of film reviews,
interviews, and scholarly articles on Herzog and his work, there are
very few books devoted to his films, and none addressing his entire
career to date. Until now.
Forgotten Dreams offers not only an analytical study of Herzog's films
but also a new reading of Romanticism's impact beyond the nineteenth
century. It argues that his films re-envision and help us better
understand a critical stream in Romanticism, and places the films in
conversation with other filmmakers, authors, and philosophers in order
to illuminate that critical stream. The result is a lively reconnection
with Romantic themes and convictions that have been partly forgotten in
the midst of Germany's postwar rejection of much of Romantic thought,
yet are still operative in German culture today. The film analyses will
interest scholars of film, German Studies, and Romanticism as well as a
broader public interested in Herzog's films and contemporary German
cultural debates. The book will also appeal to those interested in the
ongoing renegotiation - by Western and other cultures - of relationships
between reason and passion, civilization and wild nature, knowledge and
belief.
Laurie Ruth Johnson is Professor of German, Comparative and World
Literature, and Criticism and Interpretive Theory at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
