Until German unification in 1990 the study of post-1945 German film focused on the films of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), and largely ignored the film culture of DEFA in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). This dissertation addresses selected DEFA films of the immediate post-war period to 1966 under Soviet and German socialism. A striking attribute of many of these films is their reliance upon strong-willed and persistent female protagonists, who successfully raise issues of consequence while providing a model for the ideal worker (Arbeiterin or Arbeiter ) under socialism. The prominent female figures featured in the films of this study represent women under socialism as they interface with paid labor (Erwerbsarbeit ). The filmic characters of these films evolve from idealized figures leading a way out of the ruins of war to complex worker-individuals interacting with the accepted model of work and career (for both sexes) in the GDR. Filmmakers were not content to merely provide examples of the GDR's constitutional commitment to equality for women in the workplace and in society; they made films about women in their workplaces in order to amplify the worker experience of emancipation they believed was possible. This study contains film and cultural analysis for several films that have not received significant treatment including Bürgermeister Anna (Mayor Anna) directed by Hans Müller, Frauenschicksale (Destinies of Women) directed by Statan Dudow, and Sonnensucher (Sun Seekers) directed by Konrad Wolf. It also illuminates women's entry into the workplace in better-known films such as Wolfgang Staudte's Die Mörder sind unter uns (The Murderers are Among Us), Konrad Wolf's Der geteilte Himmel (Divided Heaven), and Spur der Steine (Trace of Stones) directed by Frank Beyer. The importance of the female figures of DEFA film, especially in this early period, represents a contribution to the study of DEFA film, representation of working women in GDR, and the discussion of gender in the context of the Cold War.

Acting the Child examines the ways in which adult male characters in film and literature from Europe and America can use the role of the child to their political and emotional advantage. As childhood became an increasingly powerful cultural concept, adult men accessed that power to define themselves and organize social relationships. The thesis proposes “infantilization” as a term to describe how these characters act like children or force other characters into the role of the child. The thesis analyzes key moments in the development of infantilization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The first chapter explores the uses of infantilization, which produce strong effects in Honoré de Balzac's Le Père Goriot and Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes. These novels demonstrate the ways in which infantilization creates surrogate families in Parisian society. These roles can define and justify extramarital affairs or same sex relationships, which have no legitimate expression. The second chapter demonstrates how H. G. Wells' criticisms of Victorian culture and politics often revolve around male identity such as the scientist-adventurer. As the concepts of boyhood and girlhood solidified, they could describe individual adults or entire social groups. Infantilization was already part of the political discourse, and my thesis demonstrates how Wells challenged these categories. The third chapter extends the analysis of aggressive, masculine characters by examining D. W. Griffith's The Avenging Conscience (1914) and Broken Blossoms (1919) in conjunction with a selection of American recruitment posters for World War I. The analysis shows that World War I had a profound impact on infantilization. Griffith's satirical representation of the man-child subtly criticizes World War I and echoes Wells's attack on Empire. The last chapter explores the effects of the war on infantilization by analyzing three delayed responses: Bernward Vesper's The Trip, Alfons Heck's A Child of Hitler, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's In a Year of Thirteen Moons. Like Fassbinder, I find German adults acting like children in order to cope with a troubled present.