This volume contains 13 original essays exploring Rammstein’s stage performance and recorded works from multiple academic perspectives. Topics range from Rammstein’s connection with 19th century German literature and their East German heritage to cannibalism and the supernatural. The panoramic view of approaches to Rammstein’s music and performance goes beneath the surface and provides fan and scholar alike with a deeper appreciation for the band. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

John T. Littlejohn has published on such diverse topics as American detective fiction and international cinema. He lives in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Michael T. Putnam is assistant professor of German & linguistics at the Pennsylvania State University. His previous publications have appeared in various venues such as Popular Music and Society. He lives in State College, Pennsylvania.

Edited by John T. Littlejohn and Michael T. Putnam

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 284
Bibliographic Info: notes, discographies, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2013
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7463-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1305-5
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments  v
Introduction: Gaining an Academic Appreciation of Rammstein  1

Part I: Experiencing Rammstein
1. Industrial Humor and Rammstein’s Postmodern Politics (Patricia Anne Simpson)  9
2. Metamodernist Form, “Reader-Response” and the Politics of Rammstein: What Rammstein Means When You Don’t Understand the Lyrics (David A. Robinson)  30
3. Rammstein Are Laibach for Adolescents and Laibach Are Rammstein for Grown-Ups (Daniel Lukes)  53
4. Über Alles: Rock Bands Following in the Wake of Rammstein (Brad Klypchak)  79

Part II: Rammstein, Literature and Culture
5. Heimatsehnsucht: Rammstein and the Search for Cultural Identity (Nick Henry and Juliane Schicker)  99
6. Rammstein Rocking the Republic: A Cultural Reading of the Trans/National Shock ’n’ Roll Circus (Corinna Kahnke)  120
7. A Carnivalesque Cannibal: Armin Meiwes, “Mein Teil” and Representations of Homosexuality (Karley K. Adney)  133
8. Fear, Desire and the Fairy Tale Femme Fatale in Rammstein’s “Rosenrot” (Erin Sweeney Smith)  150
9. Rammstein, Johann Gottfried Herder and the Origin of Rock and Roll (Simon Richter)  173
10. Love as a Battlefield: Reading Rammstein as Dark Romantics (Martina Lüke)  189
11. Liebe ist für Alle Da: A Visual Analysis of Rammstein’s 2009 Album Artwork (Robert G. H. Burns)  216

Part III: The Elemental and the Metaphysical
12. Fire, Water, Earth and Air: The Elemental Rammstein (John T. Littlejohn)  229
13. Discipleship in the Church of Rammstein (Michael T. Putnam)  250

About the Contributors  269
Index  273