How is Triumph of the Will representative of what Ellul tells us about what propaganda is and how it works?
What comment do you think Casablanca is making about society and/or personal choices?
August 7, 2017Write a case analysis and answer What are the relevant facts of the case analysis?
August 7, 2017How is Triumph of the Will representative of what Ellul tells us about what propaganda is and how it works?
Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 documentary, Triumph of the Will, depicts a 1934 Nazi rally at Nuremberg, and is arguably the best-known propaganda film of the 20th century. This exam question is a case study that investigates her work as Hitler’s propagandist.
Watch the film and analyze it around the following questions:
1) How is Triumph of the Will representative of what Ellul tells us about what propaganda is and how it works?
2) How is Triumph of the Will representative, in its features, of what Sontag (1975) tells us about the “fascist aesthetic” and how it works?
3) What lessons can we draw from Postman’s article about democracy and media that might help us avoid propaganda and critique the fascist aesthetic?
References
Postman, Neil (1999). Chapter 8, Democracy. In Building a Bridge to the Eighteenth Century: Ideas from the Past That Can Improve Our Future, (pp. 136-154). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Ellul, Jacques (1957). Information and Propaganda. Diogenes, 5(18), 61-77.
Sontag, Susan (1975). Fascinating
Fascism. The New York Review of Books. No page numbers.
