Estereotipos nacionales e ideológicos de la Guerra Fría en el cinela Alemania y el Berlín divididos. Un análisis imagológico

Abstract

The aim of this research is to analyze the evolution of national and ideological stereotypes that appear in the cinema dealing with the Cold War in both divided Germany and Berlin from an imagological approach. For this purpose, we will review the evolution of imagology, the concept of stereotype and its variants, the characteristics of the cinematic text, and the essential features of the Cold War, and we will try to apply all this to the analysis of twelve films, made mainly in the United States and both Federal and Democratic Republic of Germany over 70 years (1948-2018). Imagology is a discipline that emerged from comparative literature, although today independent, dealing with images of other cultures and nations that appear in literary texts and, often, become stereotypes. This research stems from two assumptions. First, that, although with its own grammar and syntax different from those of language, a film is a text that conveys a message (although with its own grammar and syntax, different from those of language); and second that the images of other cultures or nations, i.e., stereotypes, are images of those we perceive as different to us, as alien, as Others. Those Others appearing in this investigation are not only those characters who come from other countries (national stereotypes) but also those who think differently (ideological stereotypes) and show up in films that deal with what was the Cold War like in divided Germany and divided Berlin.