FAVz017 Screening the East German Dictatorship. A Short Course on History and Cinema of the GDR

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2009
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 5 credit(s). Recommended Type of Completion: k (colloquium). Other types of completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Prof. Thomas Lindenberger (lecturer)
Mgr. Anna Batistová, Ph.D. (alternate examiner)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Pavel Skopal, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Anna Batistová, Ph.D.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 120 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/120, only registered: 0/120, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/120
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The three double-lectures deal with three periods:
1. "antifascist order", late Stalinism and muted destalinisation (until the erection of the wall)
2. the reform era until Ulbrichts demotion (61-71, also the most creative and turbulent phase in terms of GDR film history)
3. "real existing socialism" and dissolution of the GDR (71-89, more or less corresponding to the 'normalization' period in the CSSR).
A representative film for each of these periods to be screened Wednesday evening.
The structure of the double lectures:
- Introduction into the period in question: basic outlines in terms of political, social, cultural history, state of research, with a particular emphasis on media, public spheres, propaganda
- cinema policy of the SED, the film industry, the film profession, conflicts on censorship
- an overview of DEFA production with regard to quantity and quality, in relation to international trends
- an exemplary focus on one typical production and its political, cultural etc. context, its resonance with the GDR and international public.
At the end of the course students will:
- be able to interpret the period cinema production in the context of the cultural politics;
- understand better the possibilities of research in relation between cinema and politics;
- acquire a deeper knowledge of the cinema in GDR;
- be able to compare the GDR cinema with the development in Czechoslovakian cinema between 1945 and 1989.
Syllabus
  • Introduction into the period in question: basic outlines in terms of political, social, cultural history, state of research, with a particular emphasis on media, public spheres, propaganda
  • - cinema policy of the SED, the film industry, the film profession, conflicts on censorship
  • - an overview of DEFA production with regard to quantity and quality, in relation to international trends
  • - an exemplary focus on one typical production and its political, cultural etc. context, its resonance with the GDR and international public.
Literature
  • Feinstein, Joshua: The Triumph of the Ordinary. Depictions of Daily Life in the East German Cinema, 1949-1989 (Chapel Hill / London : North Carolina University Press 2002), ch. 2 (45-77) & ch. 4 (110-136).
  • O’Dochartaigh, Pol: ‘Americanizing the Holocaust: The Case of Jakob the Liar’, in Modern Languages Review 2006, 101.
  • Bathrick, David: ‘Holocaust Film before the Holocaust: DEFA, Antifascism and the Camps’, in CiNéMAS. Revue d’études cinématographiques 18 (2007) 1, pp.109-134.
  • Hake, Sabine: German National Cinema, Routledge: London 2002, pp. 119-132: ‘The New Wave and the Eleventh Plenary’
  • Allen, Seán: ‘DEFA: An Historical Overview’, in Allan, Seán, and John Sandford (eds), DEFA: East German Cinema, 1946-1992. New York: Berghahn Books, 1999, 1-21.
Teaching methods
Lectures
Screenings
Home reading assignments
Assessment methods
Full time students: 100% presence at the lectures is required. Distance students: two absences are tolerated. Colloquium: written test.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
Information on completion of the course: Full time students: 100% presence at the lectures is required. Distance students: two absences are tolerated.
The course is taught only once.
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