Screening the Past through the Lens of Humour: Representations of the Communist Past in Contemporary German Cinema
Screening the Past through the Lens of Humour: Representations of the Communist Past in Contemporary German Cinema

Summary/Abstract: This article provides an insight into coming to terms with the communist past in contemporary German cinema by analysing three feature films released in different periods of the post-Wall era. It argues about various uses of humorous representations of the past in the social comedies Stilles Land [Silent Country, Andreas Dresen, 1992], Good Bye, Lenin! [Wolfgang Becker, 2003], and Boxhagener Platz [Boxhagen Place, Matti Geschonneck, 2010], and the implications they have in constructing collective memory. These representations are characteristic phenomena in Germany’s dealing with the communist past, which tend to re-interpret topoi such as victims and perpetrators and challenge stereotyped concepts of the memory discourse such as Ostalgie, Gegen-Ostalgie or Westalgie.

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