Material fantasies : expectations of the western consumer world among the East Germans

Milena Veenis

This thoughtful study of the East German fantasies of material abundance across the border, both before and after the fall of communism, proves that ideology and fantasy are communicating vessels, not to be dismissed by social scientists. In 1989, news broadcasts all over the world were dominated for weeks by images of East Germans crossing the Berlin Wall to West Germany. The images, representing the fall of communism and the democratic will of the people, also showed East Germans' excitement at finally being able to enter the western consumer paradise. But what exactly had they expected to find on the other side of the Wall? Why did they shed tears of joy when for the first time in their lives, they stepped inside West German shops? And why were they prepared to pay more than 10 percent of their average monthly wage for a pineapple? Drawing on two years of research in the fast-changing post-communist East Germany, Veenis unravels the perennial truths about the interrelationships of fantasies of material wealth, personal fulfillment and social coohesion.She argues persuasively that the far-fetched socialist and capitalist promises of consumption as the road to ultimate well-being, the partial realization and partial corruption thereof, the implicit social and psychological interests underlying the politicized promises in both countries form the breeding ground for the development of materialist, cargo-cult-like fantasies, in which material well-being came to be seen as the place of -fulfillment and ultimate arrival?. This title is available in the OAPEN Library - http://www.oapen.org.

「Nielsen BookData」より

[目次]

  • Material Fantasies - 2[-]Preface - 6[-]Contents - 10[-]Introduction - 12[-]Chapter 1 Fieldwork - 32[-]Chapter 2 Germany 1945: A Country in Ruins - 48[-]Chapter 3 The GDR: Future Promises - 64[-]Chapter 4 Material Realizations - 76[-]Chapter 5 The East German Dictatorship - 108[-]Chapter 6 Silenced Pasts - 136[-]Chapter 7 Western Promise - 162[-]Chapter 8 Shattered Illusions - 184[-]Conclusion - 216[-]Notes - 238[-]Bibliography - 266[-]Index - 278

「Nielsen BookData」より

この本の情報

書名 Material fantasies : expectations of the western consumer world among the East Germans
著作者等 Veenis Milena
シリーズ名 Technology and European history series
出版元 Amsterdam University Press
刊行年月 2012
ページ数 280 p.
大きさ 24 cm
ISBN 9789089644008
NCID BB10893967
※クリックでCiNii Booksを表示
言語 英語
出版国 オランダ
この本を: 
このエントリーをはてなブックマークに追加

このページを印刷

外部サイトで検索

この本と繋がる本を検索

ウィキペディアから連想