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By the time the Berlin Wall collapsed, the cinema of the German
Democratic Republic-to the extent it was considered at all-was
widely regarded as a footnote to European film history, with little
of enduring value. Since then, interest in East German cinema has
exploded, inspiring innumerable festivals, books, and exhibits on
the GDR's rich and varied filmic output. In Re-Imagining DEFA,
leading international experts take stock of this vibrant landscape
and plot an ambitious course for future research, one that
considers other cinematic traditions, brings genre and popular
works into the fold, and encompasses DEFA's complex
post-unification "afterlife."
East German culture has not lost any of its fascination for western
scholars, not even after unification. It is cinema in particular
that continues to attract interest. This volume, the first one in
English, traces the development of the main institution, the
state-sponsored Deutsche Film Anstalt (DEFA), that was responsible
for film production in the former GDR from 1946 and ceased to exist
in 1992 Although largely ignored outside the former GDR, the DEFA
produced a number of excellent films and scriptwriters that are
examined here for the first time and presented to a wider
readership. The themes covered by the contributors include the
representation of fascism and anti-fascism in the cinema of the
1940s and 1950s, the conflicts between the state and the
film-makers of the 1960s, and the social-political criticism in the
1970s and early 1980s. Other chapters focus on key issues such as
the representation of women, the concept of "Heimat, " the
reception of the classical heritage, documentary film-making before
and after unification, and the relation of DEFA cinema to other
European film traditions. The comprehensive bibliography and a list
of research sources on East German cinema make this volume an
indispensable tool for students and scholars of the media.
." . . the lucid style of all contributions . . . makes this volume
an accessible read to students . . . this volume has also the bonus
of offering an excellent appendix on sources for future research .
. . this collection of essays illustrates precisely why the quality
of DEFA film-making should not be confined to the archives of
history." - Journal of European Areas Studies "A useful appendix
provides research sources. Written in clear prose, these essays
should interest undergraduates and generalists as well as scholars
and faculty." - Humanities Western scholars have not lost any of
their fascination for East German culture. Cinema in particular
continues to attract interest. This volume, the first one in
English, traces the development of the main institution, the
state-sponsored Deutsche Film Anstalt (DEFA), which was primarily
responsible for film production in the former GDR from 1946,
ceasing to exist in 1992. Although largely ignored outside the
former GDR, the DEFA produced anumber of excellent films and
scriptwriters that are examined here for the first time. This
volume analyzes the representation of fascism and anti-fascism in
the cinema of the 1940s and 1950s, the conflicts between the state
and the film-makers of the 1960s, and the social-political
criticism in the 1970s and early 1980s. Other key issues that arise
from this comprehensive look at DEFA include its representation of
women, the concept of ""Heimat,"" the reception of the classical
heritage, and the relation of DEFA cinema to other European film
traditions.The comprehensive bibliography and a list of research
sources on East German cinema make this volume an indispensable
tool for students and scholars of the media. Sean Allan is senior
Lecturer in German Studies at the University of Warwick. John
Sandford is Professor of German Studies at the University of
Reading."
With internationalist aspirations and wide-ranging historical
perspectives, East German films about artists and their work became
hotly contested spaces in which filmmakers could look beyond the
GDR and debate the impact of contemporary cultural policy on the
reception of their pre-war cultural heritage. Spanning newsreels,
documentaries, and feature films, Screening Art is the first
full-length investigation into a genre that has been largely
overlooked in studies of DEFA, the state-owned Eastern German film
studio. As it shows, "artist-films" played an essential role in the
development of new paradigms of socialist art in postwar Europe.
By the time the Berlin Wall collapsed, the cinema of the German
Democratic Republic-to the extent it was considered at all-was
widely regarded as a footnote to European film history, with little
of enduring value. Since then, interest in East German cinema has
exploded, inspiring innumerable festivals, books, and exhibits on
the GDR's rich and varied filmic output. In Re-Imagining DEFA,
leading international experts take stock of this vibrant landscape
and plot an ambitious course for future research, one that
considers other cinematic traditions, brings genre and popular
works into the fold, and encompasses DEFA's complex
post-unification "afterlife."
With internationalist aspirations and wide-ranging historical
perspectives, East German films about artists and their work became
hotly contested spaces in which filmmakers could look beyond the
GDR and debate the impact of contemporary cultural policy on the
reception of their pre-war cultural heritage. Spanning newsreels,
documentaries, and feature films, Screening Art is the first
full-length investigation into a genre that has been largely
overlooked in studies of DEFA, the state-owned Eastern German film
studio. As it shows, "artist-films" played an essential role in the
development of new paradigms of socialist art in postwar Europe.
New essays on the most prominent German dramatist and short-story
writer of the early 19th century. For over 150 years, Heinrich von
Kleist (1777-1811) has been one of the most widely read and
performed German authors. His status in the literary canon is
firmly established, but he has always been one of Germany's most
contentiously discussed authors. Today's critical debate on his
unique prose narratives and dramas is as heated as ever. Many
critics regard Kleist as a lone presager of the aesthetics and
philosophies of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
modernism. Yet there can be no question that he responds in his
works and letters to the philosophical, aesthetic, and political
debates of his time. During the last thirty years, the scholarship
on Kleist's work and life has departed from the existentialist wave
of the 1950s and early 1960s and opened up new avenues for coming
to terms with his unusual talent. The present volume brings
together the most important and innovative of these newer scholarly
approaches: the essays include critically informed, up-to-date
interpretations of Kleist's most-discussed stories and dramas.
Other contributions analyze Kleist's literary means and styles and
their theoretical underpinnings. They include articles on Kleist's
narrative and theatrical technique, poetic and aesthetic theory,
philosophical and political thought, and insights from new
biographical research. Contributors: Jeffrey L. Sammons,Jost
Hermand, Anthony Stephens, Bianca Theisen, Hinrich C. Seeba,
Bernhard Greiner, Helmut J. Schneider, Tim Mehigan, Susanne Zantop,
Hilda M. Brown, and Sean Allan. Bernd Fischer is Professor of
German and Head of theDepartment of German at Ohio State
University.
New and insightful interpretations of the controversial stories of
Heinrich von Kleist. The fascinating and controversial German
writer of dramas and novellas Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) is
one of the most interesting objects of analysis for scholars of
German literature even today, nearly two centuries after hisdeath
by suicide. In recent years, disagreements among Kleist scholars
have been so extreme that some have suggested that his work
subverts the very process of interpretation. Sean Allan challenges
this view and the related one of Kleist as a profound pessimist. He
argues that the focus on Kleist's uninterpretability has obscured
important elements of social criticism present in his 'moral
stories.' To correct the widely-held view of Kleist as a 'poet
without a society,' Allan approaches the stories via investigation
of four thematic clusters: justice and revenge; revolution and
social change; education and the nature of evil; and art and
religion. Allan holds that the perspectiveendorsed by the Kleistian
narrator is designed to reflect the assumptions and prejudices of
the members of the dominant class of Kleist's time (authoritarian
and male-dominated as it was), and finds that by the end of the
storiesit is precisely this perspective that has been profoundly
called into question. Sean Allan is lecturer in German at the
University of Warwick, UK.
This is a new and accessible study of the plays of Kleist
(1777-1811), who ranks with Goethe and Schiller amongst
nineteenth-century authors and who has been a major influence on
contemporary German writers. Sean Allan examines Kleist's critique
of the aspirations of both Enlightenment and Romantic metaphysics,
notably his suggestion that the pursuit of 'transcendent' ideals of
perfection constitutes a formidable obstacle to genuine progress in
human affairs. In so doing, he offers resolutions of a number of
long-running controversies in Kleist criticism, as well as
summarizing the state of research on all the plays. The book
includes discussion of two plays usually neglected by scholars -
Das Kathchen von Heilbronn and Die Hermannsschlacht. All quotations
are given in both German and English and full references are given
to published English translations of Kleist's works as well as to
the German originals.
This is an accessible 1996 study of the plays of Kleist
(1777-1811), who ranks with Goethe and Schiller amongst
nineteenth-century authors and who has been a major influence on
contemporary German writers. Sean Allan examines Kleist's critique
of the aspirations of both Enlightenment and Romantic metaphysics,
notably his suggestion that the pursuit of 'transcendent' ideals of
perfection constitutes a formidable obstacle to genuine progress in
human affairs. In so doing, he offers resolutions of a number of
long-running controversies in Kleist criticism, as well as
summarizing the state of research on all the plays. The book
includes discussion of two plays usually neglected by scholars -
Das Kathchen von Heilbronn and Die Hermannsschlacht. All quotations
are given in both German and English and full references are given
to published English translations of Kleist's works as well as to
the German originals.
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