Overview

The first scholarly collection in English or German to fully address the treatment of gender and sexuality in the productions of DEFA across genres and in social, political, and cultural context. The cinema of the German Democratic Republic, that is, the cinema of its state-run studio DEFA, portrayed gender and sexuality in complex and contradictory ways. In doing so, it reflected the contradictions in GDR society in respect to such questions. This is the first scholarly collection in English or German to fully address the treatment of gender and sexuality in the productions of DEFA across genres (from shorts and feature films to educational videos, television productions, and documentaries) and in light of social, political, and cultural contexts. It is also unique in its investigation of previously unresearched subjects, including films and directors that have received little scholarly attention and nonconformist representations of gender and sexual embodiments, identifications, and practices. The volume presents the work of leading scholars on the GDR and allows students and scholars to examine East German film with respect to the acceptance, rejection, or nuanced negotiation of ideas of proper male and female behavior espoused by the country's brand of socialism. Contributors: Muriel Cormican, Jennifer L. Creech, Heidi Denzel de Tirado, Kyle Frackman, Sebastian Heiduschke, Sonja E. Klocke, John Lessard, Larson Powell, Victoria I. Rizo Lenshyn, Reinhild Steingroever, Faye Stewart, Evan Torner, Henning Wrage. Kyle Frackman is Assistant Professor of Germanic Studies at the University of British Columbia. Faye Stewart is Associate Professor of German at Georgia State University.

Full Product Details

Author:   Kyle Frackman (Customer) ,  Faye Stewart (Author) ,  Evan Torner (Contributor) ,  Faye Stewart (Author)
Publisher:   Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Imprint:   Camden House Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.596kg
ISBN:  

9781571139924

ISBN 10:   1571139923
Pages:   296
Publication Date:   15 May 2018
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

"Introduction: Sex and Socialism in East German Cinema - Kyle Frackman and Faye Stewart Hypnagogic Mothers: Gender, Amateur Film Labor, and the Transmissive Materiality of the Maternal Body - John Lessard Powerless Heroines: Gender and Agency in DEFA Films of the 1960s and 1970s - Henning Wrage Jutta Hoffmann and the Dialectics of Happiness: A Socialist Star in Close-Up - Victoria I. Rizo Lenshyn Who Is the ""Third""? Homosociality and Queer Desire in Der Dritte - Faye Stewart Volatile Intimacies and Queer Polyamory in GDR Film - Evan Torner Interracial Romance, Taboo, and Desire in the Eastern Counter-Western Blutsbrüder - Heidi Denzel de Tirado The Desire to Be Desired? Solo Sunny as Socialist Woman's Film - Larson Powell Ambivalent Sexism: Gender, Space, Nation, and Renunciation in Unser kurzes Leben - Muriel Cormican Dealing with Cancer, Dealing with Love: Gender, Relationships, and the GDR Medical System in Lothar Warneke's Die Beunruhigung - Sonja Klocke Reimagining Woman: The Early Shorts of Helke Misselwitz - Reinhild Steingröver Shame and Love: East German Homosexuality Goes to the Movies - Kyle Frackman Gendered Spectacle: The Liberated Gaze in the DEFA Film Der Strass - Jennifer L. Creech and Sebastian Heiduschke"

Reviews

[This collection of essays] shows once again what new perspectives on the film history and audiovisual culture of the GDR can be opened by the application of feminist, queer, and postcolonial theory, by a comprehensive historical contextualization, and by looking at parallel or related developments outside the GDR. . . . [T]he editors lay out in their introduction the organizational, political, and ideological contexts of production and their effects on the representation of sex, gender, and sexuality. FILMBLATT [Anna Luise Kiss] [T]his is the book so many German film and DEFA researchers have been waiting for!...All [the] essays are of high academic standard and a great pleasure to read...[T]his volume is a commendable achievement and will inspire researchers well acquainted with the GDR, as well as serving as an introduction to East German film. MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW [Stephan Ehrig] Ultimately East German socialism posed the question of reconfiguring regimes of gender, intimacy, and labor, a question that East German filmmakers took on without supplying solutions that only life itself could provide. [This book] is an excellent contribution to the understanding of how this dialectic of happiness plays out in the film culture of the GDR. GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW [Hunter Bivens]

Ultimately East German socialism posed the question of reconfiguring regimes of gender, intimacy, and labor, a question that East German filmmakers took on without supplying solutions that only life itself could provide. [This book] is an excellent contribution to the understanding of how this dialectic of happiness plays out in the film culture of the GDR. GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW [Hunter Bivens]

Author Information

KYLE FRACKMAN is Associate Professor of German & Scandinavian Studies at the University of British Columbia. KYLE FRACKMAN is Associate Professor of German & Scandinavian Studies at the University of British Columbia. Larson Powell is Curator's Professor of Film Studies at University of Missouri, Kansas City. MURIEL CORMICAN is Professor of German and Chair of Modern Language Studies at Texas Christian University. SONJA E. KLOCKE is Professor of German with an affiliation in Gender and Women's Studies as well as European Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also serves as Director of the Center for German and European Studies, a DAAD Center of Excellence.

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