Schwarz Rot Gold is the New Black The Production of Patriotism in German Fashion - The Case of Eva

This thesis is a theoretically guided empirical discussion of fashion and its role within the production of national identity in Germany. In recent years, a new patriotism in contemporary German fashion could be observed, starting with the fashion designer Eva Gronbach in 2001. I will approach the term patriotism with the aid of one of Michel Foucault’s key terms, the notion of the episteme. In my case study, singular fashion images from three consecutive collections by Gronbach are examined with regard to their role in the discourse of German patriotism. But I am not only interested in the “how” of this discourse. Building up upon Antonio Gramsci’s notion of “cultural hegemony”, I also explain the recent rise of this fashion patriotism. Thus, my discourse analysis of Gronbach’s fashion becomes embedded in social struggles and transformations in Germany. Argueing that fashion is a discursive practice that can show up as well as promote changes in discursive formations, I assume a dialectical structure-agency conception: On the one hand the case of Gronbach hints at the deeper structural problematic of patriotism and social cohesion which allowed Gronbach to become popular. On the other hand, this structure is also produced via discursive practices such as Gronbach ́s. The what I term “inclusionary patriotism” comprises cultural normalisation. Thus, the case of Gronbach demonstrates a “constrained heterogeneity” with regard to the discourse of patriotism in Germany, in which diversity is only acceptable within certain discursively constructed limits.