TY - GEN T1 - The freest country in the world : East Germany's final year in culture and memory T2 - Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture. A1 - Brockmann, Stephen LA - English PP - Rochester, New York PB - Camden House YR - 2023 UL - https://ebooks.jgu.edu.in/Record/jstor_dda_on1375187196 AB - "Stephen Brockmann's new book explores the year 1989/1990 in East Germany, arguing that while the GDR is generally seen as - and was for most of its forty years - an oppressive and unfree country, from autumn 1989 until the autumn of 1990 it was the "freest country in the world," since the dictatorship had disappeared while the welfare system remained. That such freedom existed in the last months of the GDR and was a result of the actions of East Germans themselves has been obscured, Brockman shows, by the now-standard description of the collapse of the GDR and the reunification of Germany as a triumph of Western democracy and capitalism. Brockmann first addresses the culture of 1989/1990 by looking at various media from that final year, particularly film documentaries. He emphasizes punk culture and the growth of neo-Nazism and the Antifa movement - factors often ignored in accounts of the period. He then analyzes three later semiautobiographical novels about the period. He devotes chapters to dramatic films dealing with German reunification made relatively soon after the event and to more recent film and television depictions of the period, respectively. The final chapter looks at monuments and memorials of the 1989/1990 period, and a conclusion considers the implications of the book's findings for the present day"-- OP - 339 CN - PT3707 .B76 2023 SN - 9781805430384 SN - 1805430386 SN - 1805430378 SN - 9781805430377 SN - 9781640141544 SN - 1640141545 KW - Literature and society : Germany (East) KW - German literature : Germany (East) : History and criticism. KW - Collective memory : Germany. KW - Germany (East) : In popular culture. KW - Germany (East) : In literature. KW - Germany : History : Unification, 1990 : In literature. KW - Littérature et société : Allemagne (Est) KW - Mémoire collective : Allemagne. KW - Allemagne : Histoire : 1990 (Réunification) : Dans la littérature. KW - LITERARY CRITICISM / European / German KW - Collective memory KW - German literature KW - Literature KW - Literature and society KW - Germany KW - Germany (East) KW - 1990 KW - Electronic books. KW - Criticism, interpretation, etc. KW - History ER -