Representations of the 'Other' in Weimar Cinema (1918-1933)

通过思考魏玛电影如何表现被主流社会话语边缘化的个体，我的项目将关于“他者”的态度带到了学术讨论的前沿。我分析了工人阶级、犹太人和LGBTQIA+社区的代表性，这些群体在魏玛共和国及以后一直被视为对国家秩序的威胁。由于德国在第一次世界大战中的失败和希特勒在1933年被任命为总理，魏玛共和国一直是一个政治上不稳定的实体。基于Elsaesser（2000）对“历史想象”的研究，我认为魏玛电影中描绘的“他者”因此受到质疑。魏玛建立在乐观和自由的价值观之上;然而，即使是投资于开放社会的电影制片人，也经常制作似乎削弱这种价值观的“他者”形象。此外，在查阅自传材料和电影资料的同时，我还将询问导演的身份（其中一些导演本身就属于少数群体）是否对他们在电影中描绘“他人”的方式产生影响，以及这些导演在多大程度上抵制或复制排他性的社会话语。通过这些方式，我的项目将追踪甚至贯穿自由魏玛文化的一些内部断层线，并指出其消亡，挑战人们普遍持有的“黄金时代”观点。

By considering the way in which Weimar cinema represents individuals who are marginalized bydominant social discourses, my project brings attitudes about the 'other' to the forefront of academicdiscussion. I analyse representations of the working class, Jews and the LGBTQIA+ community, groupswho continued to be seen as a threat to the national order during the Weimar Republic and beyond.Framed by the German defeat in World War One and Hitler's appointment as Chancellor in 1933, theWeimar Republic was always a politically unstable entity. Based on Elsaesser's (2000) study of the"historical imaginary", I argue that the imaginaries depicted in Weimar cinema were therefore contested.Weimar was founded on optimistic and liberal values; however, even filmmakers invested in opening upsociety, frequently produced images of the 'other' that seem to undercut such values. Moreover,consulting autobiographical material alongside film, I will also ask whether the identity of the directors,some of whom belong to minority groups themselves, has an impact on the way in which they portray'others' in their films, and to what degree even these directors either resist or reproduce exclusionarysocial discourses. In these ways, my project will trace some of the internal fault-lines that run eventhrough liberal Weimar culture and point forward to its demise, challenging the commonly held view of a'golden era'.