Books by Evelyn Preuss
The GDR Tomorrow: Rethinking the East German Legacy, 2024
Chapters by Evelyn Preuss
German Graphic Narratives and Trauma, 2025
Goodbye, Sonnenallee, Or How Gundermann (2018) Got Lost in the Cinema of Others
Politics and Culture in Germany and Austria Today, 2021
To See or Not to See? Topographies of Repression in Konrad Wolfs/Was Nineteen and The Naked Man on the Sportsground
Revisiting space: space and place in European …, 2005
“You Say You Want a Revolution”: East German Film at the Crossroads between the Cinemas
Celluloid Revolt, Apr 22, 2019
“You Say You Want a Revolution”
Celluloid Revolt, Apr 22, 2019
Clifton Ross is a, writer, poet, translator and filmmaker based in Berkeley, California, whose wo... more Clifton Ross is a, writer, poet, translator and filmmaker based in Berkeley, California, whose work has been inspired and informed by the revolutionary and social movements of Latin America and the United States. This interview discusses Ross' recent political memoir and his participation in and perception of those various revolutions and social movements.
The GDR Tomorrow: Rethinking the East German Legacy (Oxford: Lang, 2023), 2024
This chapter draws out surprising continuities between Hollywood and East German mainstream cinem... more This chapter draws out surprising continuities between Hollywood and East German mainstream cinema, while also pointing out decisive differences. It argues that while both Love Story and The Legend of Paul and Paula share a similar plot, character constellation, and even narrative structure, the Hollywood film supported the US's dominant ideology and economic and political elites while the East German film questioned the GDR's dominant ideology and contested the political elite's legitimation. While the Hollywood film hid political realities and emotionally manipulated its audiences, the East German film referred audiences to their own experiences and invited audiences to co-produce the meaning of the film. Here, East Germany's studio system--despite its similarities to Hollywood, allowed for a more democratically-informed film-making than the US.
Contrary to characterizations of the Berlin Wall as antithetical to modern developments, the arti... more Contrary to characterizations of the Berlin Wall as antithetical to modern developments, the article shows that the famed symbol of the Cold War in fact monumented modernity. It enabled the spliced projections of self and Other along stratagems of lack and perceived suture that finds its post-1989 extension in the proverbial "wall in the heads" ("Mauer in den Köpfen"). Texts discussed include speeches by Ronald Reagan, "Nikita" by Elton John and _Sonnenallee_ by Leander Haußmann.
The Symphony Continues: Orchestrating Architectural, Social, and Artistic Change in Germany's New Capital. Eds. Kristie Foell, Carol Anne Costabile-Heming, and Rachel Halverson. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2004: 119-142., 2004
Articles by Evelyn Preuss
“Naked among Wolves by Frank Beyer.” German Studies Review. 3 (2006): 712-713.
The Berlin Wall not only divided Cold War Europe, but also unified it. Serving as a projection sc... more The Berlin Wall not only divided Cold War Europe, but also unified it. Serving as a projection screen, it allowed each side to project the other as a continuation of the Nazi regime and itself as the opposite of that grim reign, the vindication of history incarnate. Given the way a basically cinematic apparatus facilitated these memory politics, film-makers on both sides of the former divide probed the historical depth of the present while seeking to redeem their medium from ideological compromise. Yet, what could be understood as a common project yielded very different results, as a comparison of Wim Wender's Lisbon Story and Emir Kusturica's Underground: Once Upon a Time There Was a Country, two German co-productions released on the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, shows. While Wenders portrayed Europe as having overcome past struggles through its unification, in Kusturica's uncannily integrated Europe genocide continues. Revealing are the different responses both films elicited. While Wender's touting of EU ideology was taken for granted to the extent that Lisbon Story was perceived as apolitical, Kusturica's film was, after a sharp outcry by ideologues, practically banned on the grounds that it allegedly violated the NATO embargo against Serbia.
D na very general sense, the political developments of the European 17th century resem ble those ... more D na very general sense, the political developments of the European 17th century resem ble those of the 20th century. During their first halves, these centu ries had witnessed devastating wars, and a num ber of treaties between major powers secured a power constellation that was intended to achieve peace through .. balanci.ng of power. While this power equili brium assured -relative peace in the second halves of these centuries, hegemonical endeavors contin ued to disturb the power balance an d put peace at risk. T he 350th ann iversary of the T reaty of Westphalia is an oppo rtune time to investigate how this peace was received by a 17th century European intellectual and arust, who has been considered representative of the political outlook of his era: Christian Weise.
Christian Weise's Masaniello: Rewriting the Peace of Westphalia
Focus on German Studies, 1998
D na very general sense, the political developments of the European 17th century resem ble those ... more D na very general sense, the political developments of the European 17th century resem ble those of the 20th century. During their first halves, these centu ries had witnessed devastating wars, and a num ber of treaties between major powers secured a power constellation that was intended to achieve peace through .. balanci.ng of power. While this power equili brium assured -relative peace in the second halves of these centuries, hegemonical endeavors continued to disturb the power balance and put peace at risk. T he 350th ann iversary of the T reaty of Westphalia is an opportune time to investigate how this peace was received by a 17th century European intellectual and arust, who has been considered representative of the political outlook of his era: Christian Weise. Order and stability were desiderata aher the chaos and devastation of the Thirty Years' War, which was concluded by the exhaustion of all parties involved and a long and difficult negotiation process resulting in tb...
Europe (Un)Divided: How Peace Was Won and the War Never Lost in Wim Wender's Lisbon Story (1995) and Emir Kusturica's Bila Jednom Jedna Zemlja/Underground (1995)
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 14782800701273342, Apr 1, 2007
Book Reviews by Evelyn Preuss
Pictures present "an important instrument in memory cultures." As "they prevent the sidelining of... more Pictures present "an important instrument in memory cultures." As "they prevent the sidelining of certain historical events from the collective consciousness," they also "gain the status of historical events" in the globalized media. These observations introduce Susi Frank's anthology on Eastern European visual memory, Bildformeln: Visuelle Erinnerungskulturen in Osteuropa, which combines thirteen essays on topics ranging from the storming of the Winter Palace as the iconic image for the 1917 Revolution to the insect metaphor in post-1990 Eastern European discourses.
Review of Simone Wesner. Artists' Voices in Cultural Policy: Careers, Myths and the Creative Prof... more Review of Simone Wesner. Artists' Voices in Cultural Policy: Careers, Myths and the Creative Profession after German Unification. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. xv + 197 pp.
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Books by Evelyn Preuss
Chapters by Evelyn Preuss
Articles by Evelyn Preuss
Book Reviews by Evelyn Preuss