FAV144 Cinema of the GDR: Seminar

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2009
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
PhDr. Jaromír Blažejovský, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Jiří Voráč, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Thu 10:00–12:25 C34
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The seminar focuses on formal and contextual analysis and interpretation (from ideological and gender points of view) of selected works of the DEFA studios. At the end of this course, students should be able to: analyze audiovisual works produced under the communist regime; make their intepretation; uncover potentially subversive meanings; present their findings to an audience.
Syllabus
  • Cold war propaganda – Kurt Maetzig: Der Rat der Götter (Council of the Gods, 1950). Socalist realism – Kurt Maetzig: Schlösser und Katen I-II (Castles and Cottages, 1957). The thaw period – Konrad Wolf: Sonnensucher (Sun Seekers, 1958). „Rabbit films“ – Kurt Maetzig: Das Kanninchen bin ich (I Am the Rabbit, 1965), Jürgen Böttcher: Jahrgang 45 (1965). Musical comedies – Joachim Hasler: Heisse Sommer (Hot Summer, 1968). Indian films, westerns, Gojko Mitić and Dean Reed. The drama of gender – Egon Günther: Der Dritte (The Third, 1972). Melodrama – Heiner Carow: Die Legende von Paul und Paula (The Legend of Paul and Paula, 1973). The holocaust theme – Frank Beyer: Jakob der Lügner (Jacob the Liar, 1974). The reinterpretation of history – Lothar Warneke: Einer trage des anderen Last (Bear Ye One Another’s Burdens, 1988).
Literature
  • PINKERT, Anke. Film and memory in East Germany. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008, x, 275. ISBN 9780253219671. info
  • Take two : fifties cinema in divided Germany. Edited by John E. Davidson - Sabine Hake. 1st pub. New York: Berghahn Books, 2007, vi, 250. ISBN 9781845452049. info
  • WEBER, Hermann. Dějiny NDR. Translated by Miloslav Korbelík. 1. vyd. Praha: Lidové noviny, 2003, 439 s. ISBN 80-7106-558-7. info
  • HAKE, Sabine. German national cinema. 1st pub. London: Routledge, 2002, viii, 232. ISBN 0415089026. info
  • The German cinema book. Edited by Tim Bergfelder - Erica Carter - Deniz Göktürk. 1st publ. London: BFI Publishing, 2002, xi, 291. ISBN 0851709451. info
  • FEINSTEIN, Joshua. The triumph of the ordinary : depictions of daily life in the East German cinema, 1949-1989. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002, 331 s. ISBN 0807853852. info
  • DEFA : East German cinema, 1946-1992. Edited by Seán Allan - John Sandford. 1st pub. New York: Berghahn Books, 1999, x, 328. ISBN 1571817530. info
  • Dictatorship as experience : towards a socio-cultural history of the GDR. Edited by Konrad Hugo Jarausch, Translated by Eve Duffy. 1st pub. New York: Berghahn Books, 1999, xii, 388. ISBN 1571811826. info
Assessment methods
Film screenings, student presentations, class discussion, final essay.
Language of instruction
Czech
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