Narrative and the body in uniform : East German military masculinities in Claus Dobberke’s Ein Katzensprung and Jürgen Fuchs’s Fassonschnitt

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between body and uniform as one of two competing narratives of masculinity. Literature and film depicting the Nationale Volksarmee of East Germany (NVA) present uniform's narrative of ideal military masculinity in conflict with a second, apparently more natural narrative of masculinity written on the body. Claus Dobberke's 'Ein Katzensprung' (1976) and Jürgen Fuchs's 'Fassonschnitt' (1984) explore ways that the body might subvert the effects of uniform. Ultimately, however, these two works depict the uniform transforming body and psyche and unsettling existing narratives of masculinity, even disrupting the narrative text itself.