50 Extended Essays 2013/2014
CSELOTEI, ISTVAN
DAHNIYATI, NATHANIA
DEPPING, VALENTIN
Mao Zedong was one of most powerful men of the XXth century, as indicated by Andy Warhol’s series of paintings shown on the cover of this investigation. His extensive power was realized through his personality cult, whose size surpassed all others that ever existed. Thus, Mao’s cult is a defining historical aspect of him, hence the decision to explore as the scope of this investigation: To what extent and how was the cult of Mao Zedong strengthened as a result of the Cultural Revolution?
Whether fashion is art has always been one of the most debatable topics in art and fashion industry. One designer that had successfully shown the crossover between fashion and art is Lee Alexander McQueen, one of UK’s most famous designers who is known for his unique theatrical runway shows and the heavy influence of nature in his work.
A close analysis of National Socialist Film Propaganda during the Third Reich.
Following a short introduction, this essay describes challenges that historians encounter when researching such topic, most importantly language barriers and lack of sources due to: Mao’s relatively recent rule, the Cultural Revolution (CR) being banned in China, and the absence of material specifically about the cult. In order to produce a valid comparison, this investigation examines and contrasts the main characteristics of Mao’s cult before, during, and after the CR. Afterwards, the first section analyzes the cult’s maturation, organized by the time periods between the major ‘turning points’ in its early development, namely: between Yan’an and the Secret Speech, during the Liberalization Period, and after the Hundred Flowers Campaign. The subsequent section deals with the cult during the CR by providing a brief historical background to the Revolution, analyzing the cult’s importance, and reviewing factors that contributed to the amplification of the cult. Next, the essay offers an insight on the current condition of Mao’s cult. The essay concludes that Mao’s cult culminated during the CR. While in the Revolution’s premature years it vastly strengthened, by the early ‘70s it was gradually curbed. Methods and strategies that facilitated the strengthening of the cult were: its historical roots, omnipresence, ritualization, presence in culture, Mao’s representations, its religious semblance, ease of spreading and Mao’s indifference.
This essay aims to investigate how Alexander McQueen as a designer and an artist create a work of art in a form of garments by adding elements of nature on his creation. In order to investigate this, the artistic quality of Alexander McQueen’s work will be observed including the setting of the runway show and the inspiration behind some of his famous collections. His garments will be evaluated in an artistic manner using the principals of art and design to prove that fashion is also art. At the end of this essay, we will know how fashion can also be seen as a work of art and how nature has influenced them by looking at different ways on how it was portrayed by Alexander McQueen.
Abstract This essay gives a close analysis of the purpose of National Socialist Film Propaganda during the third reich. In order to consolidate one’s power apart from the use of force, propaganda is a crucial element. The Nazi state used various tools in order to disseminate the National Socialist ideology. Goebbels managed to make effective use of the german movie industry in order to instill hope and political ideas into people while soothing the public concerning the current affairs throughout the Nazi regime. The study of Nazi Film Propaganda draws upon primary sources including movies like “Jüd Süß” and “Olympiade” depicting overt anti-semitism and nationalism respectively, while secondary sources like “Propaganda and the German Cinema” from Welch, David or a Masters Thesis discussing the effectiveness of Nazi propaganda as a whole during WWII. The purpose of national socialist movies will be analyzed systematically beginning from Nationalism to Anti-semitism to Control and finally Militarism within the theme of Escapism. The essay will show that Goebbels, the propaganda minister, managed to successfully disguise political propaganda in order to sustain the Dictatorship and hence the Nazi state even though it can not be proven due to the strict control of reviews and people’s public opinion. Also the public might have accepted and enjoyed the medium and the movies itself while rejecting it’s message and hence it’s underlying axioms. This meant that even the ticket sales or movie attendance could not be used as an indication for the successfulness in disseminating the above mentioned themes.