Theaters of Occupation

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Theaters of Occupation

Hollywood and the Reeducation of Postwar Germany

Jennifer Fay

Table of Contents

PRESS:
H-Soz-u-Kult review

$22.50 paper
ISBN: 978-0-8166-4745-3
ISBN-10: 0-8166-4745-3

$67.50 cloth
ISBN: 978-0-8166-4744-6
ISBN-10: 0-8166-4744-5

A Hollywood vision of American democracy, projected onto post–World War II Germany.

In the aftermath of total war and unconditional surrender, Germans found themselves receiving instruction from their American occupiers. It was not a conventional education. In their effort to transform German national identity and convert a Nazi past into a democratic future, the Americans deployed what they perceived as the most powerful and convincing weapon—movies.

In a rigorous analysis of the American occupation of postwar Germany and the military’s use of “soft power,” Jennifer Fay considers how Hollywood films, including Ninotchka, Gaslight, and Stagecoach, influenced German culture and cinema. In this cinematic pedagogy, dark fantasies of American democracy and its history were unwittingly played out on-screen. Theaters of Occupation reveals how Germans responded to these education efforts and offers new insights about American exceptionalism and virtual democracy at the dawn of the cold war.

Fay’s innovative approach examines the culture of occupation not only as a phase in U.S.–German relations but as a distinct space with its own discrete cultural practices. As the American occupation of Germany has become a paradigm for more recent military operations, Fay argues that we must question its efficacy as a mechanism of cultural and political change.

“Jennifer Fay, one of the more skillful practitioners of cultural studies, has produced a work of film history that should vindicate those sympathetic to new approaches to occupation regimes. . . . This work may even win over some traditionalists at odds with the cultural turn. They will find it accessible and full of insights into the culture of occupation, whether in postwar Germany or contemporary Iraq, as she probes not just routines of obedience but also ruses of resistance.” —The Journal of American History

“With great enthusiasm and an innovative approach, [Jennifer Fay] maps the attempt to produce in occupied Germany a democratic pedagogy through the use of cinematic culture, while simultaneously giving an intriguing insight to both German and American film production during the 1940s and 1950s.” —Film International

Jennifer Fay is associate professor and codirector of film studies in the Department of English at Michigan State University.

264 pages | 29 b&w photos | 6 x 9 | 2008

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: Theaters of Occupation

1. Germany Is a Boy in Trouble
2. Hollywood’s Democratic Unconscious
3. Garbo Laughs and Germans Eat
4. That’s Jazz Made in Germany
5. A Gothic Occupation

Epilogue: Berlin, Fifty Years Later

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

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Theaters of Occupation *Hollywood and the Reeducation of Postwar Germany* Jennifer Fay Table of Contents PRESS: H-Soz-u-Kult review		$22.50 paper ISBN: 978-0-8166-4745-3 ISBN-10: 0-8166-4745-3 $67.50 cloth ISBN: 978-0-8166-4744-6 ISBN-10: 0-8166-4744-5
A Hollywood vision of American democracy, projected onto post–World War II Germany. In the aftermath of total war and unconditional surrender, Germans found themselves receiving instruction from their American occupiers. It was not a conventional education. In their effort to transform German national identity and convert a Nazi past into a democratic future, the Americans deployed what they perceived as the most powerful and convincing weapon—movies. In a rigorous analysis of the American occupation of postwar Germany and the military’s use of “soft power,” Jennifer Fay considers how Hollywood films, including Ninotchka, Gaslight, and Stagecoach, influenced German culture and cinema. In this cinematic pedagogy, dark fantasies of American democracy and its history were unwittingly played out on-screen. Theaters of Occupation reveals how Germans responded to these education efforts and offers new insights about American exceptionalism and virtual democracy at the dawn of the cold war. Fay’s innovative approach examines the culture of occupation not only as a phase in U.S.–German relations but as a distinct space with its own discrete cultural practices. As the American occupation of Germany has become a paradigm for more recent military operations, Fay argues that we must question its efficacy as a mechanism of cultural and political change. “Jennifer Fay, one of the more skillful practitioners of cultural studies, has produced a work of film history that should vindicate those sympathetic to new approaches to occupation regimes. . . . This work may even win over some traditionalists at odds with the cultural turn. They will find it accessible and full of insights into the culture of occupation, whether in postwar Germany or contemporary Iraq, as she probes not just routines of obedience but also ruses of resistance.” —The Journal of American History “With great enthusiasm and an innovative approach, [Jennifer Fay] maps the attempt to produce in occupied Germany a democratic pedagogy through the use of cinematic culture, while simultaneously giving an intriguing insight to both German and American film production during the 1940s and 1950s.” —Film International Jennifer Fay is associate professor and codirector of film studies in the Department of English at Michigan State University. 264 pages \| 29 b&w photos \| 6 x 9 \| 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Theaters of Occupation 1. Germany Is a Boy in Trouble 2. Hollywood’s Democratic Unconscious 3. Garbo Laughs and Germans Eat 4. That’s Jazz Made in Germany 5. A Gothic Occupation Epilogue: Berlin, Fifty Years Later Acknowledgments Notes Index