Sam Osborn
Published: 21 January 2019
Queer writing and film from the German Democratic Republic (AKA East Germany), produced between 1950-1990.
University of St Andrews
Queer writing and film from the German Democratic Republic (AKA East Germany), produced between 1950-1990.
Greater visibility is something of a double-edged sword: greater visibility validates queer identity, but also visibility is the means by which the autonomy of these individuals is limited and by which they are subjected to the normative judgements of society. In what ways do literary and film production subvert the norms of sexual and gender expression in the GDR? Taking film production and samizdat literature into account, how far do censorship mechanisms and self-censorship in the GDR place limits on queer visibility and identity formation?
I will be using a wide range of sources in order to engage with these questions, including literature and film from the 1980s produced by Aufbau and DEFA, state-approved cultural production; texts from before the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1968; and archived political literature from the 1970s, after the formation of the East German gay rights movement.
First published: 21 January 2019