Elusive '68: The Challenge to Pedagogy

Teaching ′68 presents pedagogical challenges far greater than assembling a set of workable classroom materials. Divisive controversies that were the hallmark of the time—e.g., the debate over the nature and appropriate use of violence—are with us still, though in a somewhat different form. Further, the instructor′s own politics and positionality can hardly be ignored—as they will certainly not be overlooked by our students. Additionally, this essay argues that fundamental terms (such as who qualifies as a ′68er) remain problematic; that the instrumentalization of the Holocaust by the German New Left continues to affect political decisions down to the present; that our investment as teachers in poststructuralist literary theory may—perhaps inadvertently—affect the way we view and therefore teach ′68; and, finally, that there is a pressing need, despite a recent explosion in Germany of publications celebrating the fortieth anniversary of ′68, for a didacticized reader designed for the North American German Studies classroom.