The East German Film Coming Out (1989) as Melancholic Reflection and Hopeful Projection

Bibliographic Data

ID9851840
AuthorsKyle Frackman (0000-0002-3195-1728, University of British Columbia, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume71
Issue4
Pages452-472
Publication date2018-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGerman Life and Letters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-8777 • E-ISSN: 1468-0483
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/glal.12208
OpenAlexW2889600756
LanguageEN
Citations received1

This essay argues that the East German film Coming Out (1989) achieves a dual objective: to reflect a version of living conditions for gay citizens of the GDR at the time and to project the possibility of an enlightened future in which they, and other outsiders, do not face discrimination because of their difference. Coming Out , directed by Heiner Carow, was the first feature film about homosexuality in the GDR. It premiered the day the Berlin Wall fell and came after a long and complicated history of gay rights and activism in East Germany. Despite decriminalisation in 1968, the position of lesbians and gay men in the GDR was an ambivalent and contradictory one. Through narrative and cinematographic means, the film refers to gay history and to the dissonance between socialist society and individualism, while also presenting an affirmative message for positive change and development

Ambivalence · Art · Art history · Cartography · Cognitive dissonance · Coming out · Fell · Gay rights · Geography · German · Homosexuality · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Gender Studies · German History and Society · History · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology

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