1. Realism and romance in the East German Cinema, 1952-1962.
- Author
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Urang, John Griffith
- Subjects
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MOTION pictures , *REALISM , *ROMANCE in motion pictures , *LOVE , *SOCIALISM , *IDEOLOGY , *ROMANCE fiction , *POLITICAL doctrines - Abstract
The article deals with the portrayal of realism and romance in the East German Cinema from 1952-1962. The cultural climate of the East German socialist construction phase was inhospitable to the blooming of romance. This is because there is contradiction between the traditions of romantic narrative and the demands of doctrinal socialist realism. Romance insists on narrative and ideological autonomy, where as socialist reality insists on evaluation of the individual, particularly, experience of reality from the standpoint of the future society. Desire was sacrificed for politics and the romantic passion became subject to political doctrine. Many Socialist filmmakers, slowly realized that love stories are uniquely suited to portray the struggle for and realization of human happiness, the goal ultimately of all socialist society. Yet the dream of East Germany to find a romantic mode that could compete with the glamorous allure of West Germany's love stories did not get fulfilled. For this East Germany needed to produce adequate commodities to romanticize.
- Published
- 2006
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