Title: Feminism, film, fascism
First published: 1998
Description: German society's inability and/or refusal to come to terms with its Nazi past has been analyzed in many cultural works, including the well-known books Society without the Father and The Inability to Mourn.

In this study, Susan Linville challenges the accepted wisdom of these books by focusing on a cultural realm in which mourning for the Nazi past and opposing the patriarchal and authoritarian nature of postwar German culture are central concerns - namely, women's feminist auto/biographical films of the 1970s and 1980s.

After a broad survey of feminist theory, Linville analyzes five important films that reflect back on the Third Reich through the experiences of women of different ages - Marianne Rosenbaum's Peppermint Peace, Helma Sanders-Brahms's Germany, Pale Mother, Jutta Bruckner's Hunger Years, Margarethe von Trotta's Marianne and Juliane, and Jeanine Meerapfel's Malou.

By juxtaposing these films with the accepted theories on German culture, Linville offers a fresh appraisal not only of the films' importance but especially of their challenge to misogynist interpretations of the German failure to grieve for the horrors of its Nazi past.
Subjects: Guilt, History, Motion pictures, Psychological aspects, Psychological aspects of Guilt, Psychological aspects of Motion pictures, Women in motion pictures, Women motion picture producers and directors, PERFORMING ARTS, Aspect psychologique, Nationaal-socialisme, Films, Film & Video, Reference, Cinema, Femmes au cinema, Histoire, Feminisme, Culpabilite, Productrices et realisatrices de cinema, Motion pictures, germany, Motion pictures, psychological aspects, Motion picture producers and directors
Places: Germany
LC classification: PN1993.5.G3 L56 1998