Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds by Robert von Dassanowsky

Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds: A Manipulation of Metacinema by Robert von Dassanowsky

A provocative anthology that deconstructs one of the most controversial films of 21st-century cinema. Edited by film scholar Robert von Dassanowsky, this collection offers a multi-dimensional critique of Inglourious Basterds—Quentin Tarantino’s bold revisionist war epic—through the lenses of metacinema, memory, identity, and ideological subversion.

About the Book

Contributors from film, cultural, gender, and historical studies interrogate Tarantino’s manipulation of cinematic form and genre, highlighting intersections with nazisploitation, ethnic and gender stereotyping, geopolitics, and allohistoricism. Each essay dissects iconic characters such as:

• The mythologized vengeance of the “Bear Jew”
• The conflicted heroism of “role-playing” French and German women
• Lieutenant Aldo Raine’s amoral bravado
• The cosmopolitan yet chilling intellect of Colonel Hans Landa

Further exploration includes Tarantino’s deliberate use of foreign languages, the allegorical representation of Austria’s wartime identity, and the influence of R. W. Fassbinder and other European cinematic traditions.

Perfect For

Essential reading for scholars, students, and cinephiles interested in film theory, postmodern cinema, WWII representation in pop culture, and gender and memory studies. This anthology unpacks the visual, political, and psychological complexity of a film that redefined historical narrative through the lens of spectacle and revisionism.

About the Editor

Robert von Dassanowsky is a distinguished film historian and professor of German and film studies, known for his work on Austrian cinema, postwar identity, and European cultural memory. His publications critically bridge cinematic aesthetics with sociopolitical analysis.