About This Module
Movie poster for Casblanca
This module offers a chance to explore the relationship between authoritarianism, identity and resistance through cultural performance.
The setting is Casablanca in World War II era Morocco governed by the Vichy French regime. The primary source is a pivotal scene in the Oscar winning 1942 film Casablanca, widely considered one of the all-time great Hollywood films. A group of Nazi German soldiers come to Rick’s Café Américain and begin to sing a patriotic song aimed to let the locals know who is really in charge. A counter-performance of resistance quickly emerges, with a charismatic leader of the resistance against the Nazis vigorously leading the singing of “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem. A rising chorus of voices interrupts and drowns out the Germans. They in turn demand that the cafe be closed. Professor Penny Von Eschen provides the World War II historical context for understanding this scene and the larger issues raised in the film. The teaching plan offers a set of guided questions that explore the practices of cultural censorship by authoritarian states and the ways in which counter-performance can sometimes produce moments of deep shifts in belief, feeling and perspective within civil society. Von Eschen concludes by asking students to think about differences and similarities between in-person collective performances such as the one in Casablanca and virtual performances like those staged on TikTok. As part of Authoritarianism 101, this module enables teachers to explore the themes of authoritarian practice, visual cultures of authoritarianism and challenges to authoritarianism.
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Contributor
Penny M. Von Eschen
Penny M. Von Eschen is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History and American Studies at the University of Virginia. She has written widely on the intersection of politics and culture and the US in global and transnational dimensions. Her books include Paradoxes of Nostalgia: Cold War Triumphalism and Global Disorder Since 1989 (Duke University Press, 2022), Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War (Harvard University Press, 2004), and Race Against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937–1957 (Cornell University Press, 1997).
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