The Culture of Reconstruction: European Literature, Thought and Film, 1945–50

The period following World War II was one of intense cultural activity as writers, artists and film-makers attempted to respond to the drama of the war-experience itself and to the tasks of European reconstruction. Italian neorealist film-makers, the new generation of West German writers and the exponents of commitment in France seemed to be exploring new directions in cultural activity and laying the ground for a new European renaissance. Here, 12 scholars explore aspects of French, German and Italian culture in the years 1945-50, analyze the positive elements of this renaissance, but discover an essential paradox - that the culture of the new, through both external and internal factors, was more conservative than is often apparent, and that reconstruction was more often the rebuilding of the old than an attempt at experimentation and innovation.