"Constructing Masculinities in Iris" Gusner’s Die Taube auf dem Dach (1973, 1990, 2010)
"Constructing Masculinities in Iris" Gusner’s Die Taube auf dem Dach (1973, 1990, 2010)

Summary/Abstract: One of the few female directors employed at DEFA Studios, Iris Gusner directed Die Taube auf dem Dach in 1972. It was banned and thought lost until rediscovered in 1990, only to be lost again and restored a second time for a premiere 37 years after completion. My essay reviews the remarkable production history of Die Taube and explores what made Gusner’s work unacceptable for public consumption and debate. Attentive to discourse analysis and gender studies, I argue that Die Taube was censored largely because it assaulted the core ideal of selfless socialist construction and revealed the unsuitability of the hegemonic modes of masculinity for building successful heterosexual relations. I argue that Gusner’s disparagement of outdated and progressive masculine heroic identities contributed to the film’s censorship, disappearance, and near elimination from film history.

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