{"product_id":"the-politics-of-magic-qinna-shen-9780814339039","title":"The Politics of Magic: Defa Fairy-Tale Films","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe first comprehensive, critical, book-length treatment of the live-action fairy-tale films from former East Germany.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom Paul Verhoeven's \u003ci\u003eThe Cold Heart\u003c\/i\u003e in 1950 to Konrad Petzold's \u003ci\u003eThe Story of the Goose Princess and Her Loyal Horse Falada\u003c\/i\u003e in 1989, East Germany's state-sponsored film company, DEFA (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft), produced over forty feature-length, live-action fairy-tale films based on nineteenth-century folk and literary tales. While many of these films were popular successes and paved the way for the studio's other films to enter the global market, DEFA's fairy-tale corpus has not been studied in its entirety. In \u003ci\u003eThe Politics of Magic: DEFA Fairy-Tale Films, \u003c\/i\u003e Qinna Shen fills this gap by analyzing the films on thematic and formal levels and examining their embedded agendas in relation to the cultural politics of the German Democratic Republic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e In five chapters, Shen compares the films with earlier print versions of the same stories and analyzes revisions made in DEFA's film adaptations. She also distinguishes the DEFA fairy-tale films from National Socialist, West German, and Disney adaptations of the same tales. Her archival work reconstitutes the cultural-historical context in which films were produced and received, and incorporates the films into the larger narrative of DEFA. For the first time, the banned DEFA fairy-tale comedy, \u003ci\u003eThe Robe \u003c\/i\u003e(1961\/1991), is discussed in depth. The book's title \u003ci\u003eThe Politics of Magic\u003c\/i\u003e is not intended to suggest that DEFA fairy-tale films were merely mouthpieces of official ideology and propaganda. On the contrary, Shen shows that the films run the gamut from politically dogmatic to implicitly subversive, from kitschy to experimental. She argues that the fairy-tale cloak permitted them to convey ideology in a subtle, indirect manner that allowed viewers to forget Cold War politics for a while and to delve into a world of magic where politics took on an allegorical form. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e The fact that some DEFA fairy-tale films developed an international audience (particularly \u003ci\u003eThe Story of Little Mook \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThree Hazelnuts for Cinderella\u003c\/i\u003e) not only attests to these films' universal appeal but also to the surprising marketability of this branch of GDR cinema and its impact beyond the GDR's own narrow temporal and geographic boundaries. Shen's study will be significant reading for teachers and students of folklore studies and for scholars of German, Eastern European, cultural, film, media, and gender studies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Qinna Shen\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0814339034\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780814339039\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Wayne State University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/15\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 352\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.10lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.80d\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Qinna Shen","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44128561594623,"sku":"9780814339039","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_d9901465-8da6-4786-839c-8d54aac817ec.jpg?v=1687459291","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-politics-of-magic-qinna-shen-9780814339039","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}