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Sterling, Brett. "“Ganz normale Deutsche”: Confronting the National Socialist Past in Barbara Yelin’s Irmina." Colloquia Germanica 48. (2015): 317–41. 
Added by: joachim (5/15/18, 10:14 AM)   
Resource type: Journal Article
Language: en: English
Peer reviewed
BibTeX citation key: Sterling2015a
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Categories: General
Keywords: "Irmina", Germany, History comics, Nazism, Yelin. Barbara
Creators: Sterling
Collection: Colloquia Germanica
Views: 9/864
Attachments   URLs   https://www.jstor.org/stable/26431161
Abstract
Despite the growing popularity of historical comics in German-speaking Europe, the Second World War and the Holocaust are as yet underrepresented among German-language works in the genre. Barbara Yelin’s Irmina (2014) is a key addition to the comics landscape that provides an important reflection on the period. Irmina presents a character study of a so-called “normale Deutsche” whose political indifference leads to an eventual embrace of the Nazi regime. This essay analyzes Yelin’s comic as an attempted reckoning with Germany’s National Socialist past for younger generations eager to understand their grandparents’ actions and motivations. The essay focuses particularly on the visual and narrative strategies Yelin employs to depict the titular character’s slide into complicity. The historical figure of the bystander is also discussed with attention to its formative psychological characteristics. Finally, the essay addresses the relative absence of Jewish figures in Yelin’s comic and explores the implications of this artistic choice.
Added by: joachim  
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