Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. xi, 281 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

1. Today many Germans remain nostalgic about "classic" film comedies created during the 1930s, viewing them as a part of the Nazi era that was not tainted with antisemitism. In Antisemitism in Film Comedy in Nazi Germany, Valerie Weinstein scrutinizes these comic productions and demonstrates that film comedy, despite its innocent appearance, was a critical component in the effort to separate "Jews" from "Germans," physically, economically, and artistically. Weinstein highlights how the German propaganda ministry used directives, pre- and post-production censorship, financial incentives, and influence over film critics and their judgments to replace Jewish "wit" with a slower, simpler, and more direct German "humor" that affirmed values that the Nazis associated with the Aryan race. Through contextualized analyses of historical documents and individual films, Weinstein reveals how humor, coded hints and traces, absences, and substitutes in Third Reich film comedy helped spectators imagine an abstract "Jewishness" and a "German" identity and community free from the former. As resurgent populist nationalism and overt racism continue to grow around the world today, Weinstein's study helps us rethink racism and prejudice in popular culture and reconceptualize the relationships between film humor, national identity, and race.

Subject

1. Comedy films
2. Germany
3. Antisemitism in motion pictures
4. Comedy films > Political aspects > Germany > History > 20th century
5. 1900-1999
6. History
7. Antisemitism > Germany
8. Comedy films > Social aspects > Germany > History > 20th century
9. Comedy films > Germany > History > 20th century
10. PERFORMING ARTS / Reference
11. HISTORY / Holocaust

Genre/Form

1. History.

Contents

1. Introduction: reconceiving antisemitism in Third Reich film comedy -- Overt and inferential antisemitism in Nazi writings and the film trade press -- Overt antisemitism, Jewish difference, and colonial whiteness in early Third Reich film comedy: nur nicht weich werden, Susanne! and die blume von Hawaii -- Comic ersatz: Viktor und Viktoria and Gluckskinder -- Wenn wir alle Engel waren as the model of a racialized German humor -- Capitalism, colonialism, and the white Jew in April! April! and Donogoo Tonka -- Mistaken identity and the masked Jew in Robert und Bertram -- Jewish absence, epistemic murk, and the aesthetics of cremation in Munchhausen and Die Feuerzangenbowle -- Conclusion.

Call number

1. MFL 19-3417

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-273) and index.

Author

1. Weinstein, Valerie, 1971- author.

Title

1. Antisemitism in film comedy in Nazi Germany / Valerie Weinstein.

Publisher

1. Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2019]

Copyright date

1. ©2019

Type of content

1. text

Type of medium

1. unmediated

Type of carrier

1. volume

Bibliography

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-273) and index.

Chronological term

1. 1900-1999

Other form:

1. Electronic version : Weinstein, Valerie, 1971- Antisemitism in film comedy in Nazi Germany. Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, 2019 9780253040725 (OCoLC)1089195431

ISBN

1. 9780253040718 (paperback)
2. 025304071X (paperback)
3. 9780253040701 (hardcover)
4. 0253040701 (hardcover)

Research call number

1. MFL 19-3417