Illustrating a Nation: Artists, Memory, and the Creation of East German Identity
Ph.D project
This research focuses on the role of artists in shaping a German Democratic Republic (GDR) national identity through visual culture and historical memory. Examining artists’ persecution under Nazism and their subsequent reputations in East Germany will provide a new understanding of the relationship between the Nazi and GDR pasts through the prism of art. By considering themes of exile and emigration, gender, and trauma, this research seeks to decenter narratives of national identity formation through a transnational lens. At the ZZF, Rebecca is conducting preliminary dissertation research.
Rebecca McClung is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her fields of interest include modern German history, public history, and memory studies.
During her stay at the ZZF Potsdam she is Visiting Fellow in Dept. V: Globalizations in a Divided World.