Date of Award
Spring 2023
Degree Type
Thesis
Department
Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Director of Thesis
Dr. Yvonne Ivory
First Reader
Dr. Kristina Stefanić-Brown
Second Reader
Dr. Kristina Stefanić-Brown
Abstract
This paper investigates the portrayal of Ostalgie in post-unification film and its impact on the East German identity. The swift nature in which East Germany was reabsorbed into the West and subsequent dissociation from all commercial, social, and political infrastructures relating to the GDR following reunification inspired the Ostalgie phenomenon as a way to recover an East German distinctiveness and legitimize the East German experience by expanding the narrative beyond the tyranny and injustices of the socialist state. Ostalgie films Sonnenallee, Helden wir wir, Kleinruppin Forever, and the Westalgie film Herr Lehmann contain recurring concepts of self-conscious storytelling, the unlikely hero, and incorporation of western themes and plot points, which reveal the role of Ostalgie in allowing individual reevaluation of the past and adjustment to present realities. This paper attempts to highlight the progressivity of Ostalgie and counter its characterization as a passive longing that is inhibitory to East German adaptation to post-unification society.
First Page
1
Last Page
40
Recommended Citation
Carney, Lindsay, "Unlikely Heroes: Self-Reflexivity, Comedy, and Reflective Nostalgia in Post-Unification German Film" (2023). Senior Theses. 634.
https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/senior_theses/634
Rights
© 2023, Lindsay Carney