University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations May 2017 Film After Authority: the Transition to Democracy and the End of Politics Kalling Heck University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Heck, Kalling, "Film After Authority: the Transition to Democracy and the End of Politics" (2017). Theses and Dissertations. 1484. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/1484 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. FILM AFTER AUTHORITY THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY AND THE END OF POLITICS by Kalling Heck A Dissertation SubmitteD in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee May 2017 ABSTRACT FILM AFTER AUTHORITY THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY AND THE END OF POLITICS by Kalling Heck The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2017 Under the Supervision of Professor Patrice Petro A comparison of films maDe after the transition from authoritarianism or totalitarianism to Democracy, this Dissertation aDDresses the ways that cinema can Digest anD extenD moments of political transition. By comparing films from four Different nations—the Italian Germany Year Zero, Hungarian Sátántangó, South Korean Woman on the Beach, anD American Medium Cool—in relation to iDeas Drawn from critical anD political theory, this project examines how anD why these wilDly Diverse films turn to ambiguity as their primary means to Disrupt the ravages of unchecked authority.