Schmalenberger, Sonja
Dissertation topic:
"The German in the context of the East-West conflict: (De)constructions in film from 1961 to today."
Doctoral scholarship of the German National Academic Foundation (1.10.2021-30.9.2025)
Contact address at the University of Würzburg:
Institute of German Philology
Am Hubland
97074 Würzburg
Contact address at the University of Mannheim:
Institute of German Philology
Modern German Studies I
L 10, 11-12 - Room 107
68161 Mannheim
sonja.schmalenberger@uni-mannheim.de
First supervisor: Prof. Dr Stephanie Catani
Second supervisor:
Prof. Dr Jörn Glasenapp (Univ. Bamberg)
Class in the graduate school: "Philosophy, Languages, Arts"
Doctorate in the Graduate School from SS 2022.
Abstract:
The dissertation will examine how West and East German identity(ies) are constructed or deconstructed against the backdrop of the Cold War and how these (de)constructions contribute to cultural memory. The focus here is on film productions from the Western cultural area, i.e. primarily on Western European and North American films. The study covers the period from 1945 to the present day, so that film productions made before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification are considered equally. This allows insights into the extent to which East-West dualism has played a role in the (de)construction of the (self-)image of Germans and Germany even after the end of the Cold War and how the Cold War myth is (de)constructed in retrospect.
The aim is to highlight which images of the "German" are created in film and how, and how the medium of film creates, reproduces and breaks through stereotypes of the "German". To this end, the special media-specific features of film will be examined in greater detail and those forms of representation that are exclusive to the medium of film will be considered in particular detail. The topic has numerous interfaces with other areas of film, media and cultural studies research, above all with research on concepts of nationality and the construction and deconstruction of nationality and national affiliation in film.
