The Monstrous World and its Shadow: the Grotesque Aesthetic and the Apocolyptic in Gerrnan Exprtssionist Drama and Film

The Monstrous World and its Shadow: the Grotesque Aesthetic and the Apocolyptic in Gerrnan Exprtssionist Drama and Film
Rebecca Virginia Harries
A thesis subrnitted in conforrnity with the requirements for the degree of Ph.D.
Graduate Department of Drama University of Toronto
O Copyright by Rebecca Virginia Hamies 2000
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The Monstrous World and its Shadow: the Grotesaue Aesthetic and the Amcalmtic
in German Ex~ressionkt Drama and Film. Ph.D., 2000. Rebecca Virginia Harries.
Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama, University of Toronto.
German Expressionist drama and film has inspired a considerable body of critical
literature, most of which concentrates on either the role Expressionist art played in the
evolution of the European avant-gwde or the ability of Expressionist film to embody
the anxieties of the historical subject. Although the spiritual basis for much of
Expressionist drama has been acknowledged, few criticai works concentrate on this
crucial aspect of the style in question. Yet a strain of expressionist drama and film
clearly shows evidence of an apocalyptic tradition of representation, which can
properiy be terrned grotesque.
The grotesque is an aesthetic category that describes the contamination of culturally
sacrosanct boundaries. As such, it has psychological, historical and, indeed,
metaphysical ramifications. In this respect. it is the natural language of the
millenarian sensibility, in its rejection of a rationally cornprehensible world. This
apocaiyptic strain of the grotesque can be found in the works of hitherto under-
represented playwrights, August Stramm, Oskar Kokoschka and Ernst Barlach, and in
the fantastic films, The Student of Prame, The Cabinet of Dr. Calinari and Nosferatu.
The forma1 features of these setected te- that best reveal their membership within
a grotesque and apocatyptic tradition include the rupture of linear time and finite,
measurable space and the motif of psychic dissolution, the rejection of any
psychological definition of personality. These works aiso show the apocaiyptic in
their prescntation of violence and death as the necessary agents of change, in an
understanding of the world as fallen, a place of corruption and decay, and in the
presence of mysterious signs that only the elect few can inttrpret. In conclusion,
Monstrous World does not offer a rejection of existing criticism of Expressionist film
and drama, but a revision of the traditions in which these works are typically located.
B y understanding the expressions of t his heterodox spirituaiity, t hese 0 t h confbsing
works cari bc acknowledged for the grotesque power they share.
iii
The Context of Gennan Expressionism
Principles of the Grotesque in Gennan Expressionism
Endnotes
S tramrn and the Alien Desire
Apocalytic Time and Space in Awakening and .Forces The Uncertain Pronoun
Awakening and the Annihilation of Self
Forces and the Grotesque Woman
Conclusion
Endnotes
Kokoschka: Influences and Critics
Murderer. H o ~ e of Womankind: Criticism and Interpretation
Sphinx and Strawman and Job: Cnticism and Interpretation
Oroheus and Eurvdice: Criticism and Interpretation
Conclusion
Endnotes
B iography
The Depiction of God
The Sacred Word
The Food of Sacrifice
Chapter Five: The Student of Pmrue
The Cinematic Grotesque and the 'Fantastic' Films of Early Gennan Cinema 155
The Uncanny Medium 161
The Student of Prame (191 3): Nature and the Double 168
Formal Problems in The Student of Prame 171
Two Attractions: Lydu schka and the Shadow 177
Endnotes 180
Introduction
Critical Approaches to Calkari
Conclusion
Endnotts
Nosf-: the Repressd Death and the Avenging Shadow
The Persecuted Dead
Conclusion
Endnotes
introduction
The link between German Expressionism and the grotesque has been identifieci before,
tentatively. Sometimes, the adjective grotesque is applied casually to describe the elements
and eflects of Expressionism: one speaks of "grotesque dialogue" or "grotesque passions";
rare1 y is anything as formal as a "grotesque aesthetic" spoken of. The common use of the
word grotesque is as a descriptive term for something that is distorted or exaggerated. The
psychological and subversive capacities of the grotesque are rarely elaborated in the literature
on Expressionism; although most critics would agree that there is something grotesque about
the Expressionist arts, they just do not explain precisely what.
Zn recent scholarship, interest in the grotesque has grown. The two works which provide
the foundation of much conternporary grotesque theory, Mikhaii Bakhtin's theory of the
carnival, Rabelais and His World, and Wol fgang Kayser's seminal study of grotesque theory,
The Grotesaue in Art and Literature have been applied to all media, but especially to film
and literature.' Grotesque theory is used in discussions of a vast divenity of phenomena:
fiom prehistonc uive paintings, Jacobean drama, the work of Aubrey Beardsley and James
Joyce and the Alien film series." It is ciear that not al1 of the aforementioned artistic
productions share the same grotesque, but it is also tme that there is a commonaiity between
al1 of them: it is within this wmmonality that 1 wish to situate the work of the German
Expressionists in both film and drama.
Before proceeding to a discussion of what 1 will cal1 the Expressionist grotesque, 1 wish to
examine briefly a few examples of how the grotesque and Expressionism have been
previously linked. Then, I will briefly and in no way comprehensively, d i s a i s the evolution
1
of the word grotesque and its significance within the history of eesthetics. With this cunory
understanding of the object in question, the essay will move on to identi& the special nature
of the incarnation of the grotesque in German Expressionist film and drama.
In introducing the Expressionist grotesque, 1 wî Il identi fy severai kinds o f grotesque
practice of particular importance to the Expressionist movemcnt. My definition of this
aesthetic draws on two different approaches to the grotesque, which 1 will label, somewhat
cmdely, the psychological and the sociological. Of course, the cross-pollination of these two
fields in recent scholarship is one of the most significant developments in contemporary
thought. 1 am indebted critically and spiritually to many writers on the grotesque and 1 will
introduce them as the occasion arises.
In the literature on German Expressionism. there are a few speculations on the grotesque
characteristics of the movement. J. M. Ritchie in his introduction to Seven Exbressionist
Plavs says that Expressionist theatre is "as deeply serious as it is grotesquely funny" (7).
Walter Sokel writes o f Expressionist drama: "there are in these plays elernents of distortion,
exaggeration, grotesqueness and implausibility that clearIy anticipate the alienating effects
encountered in the avant-garde theatre of our own time" (1 xii). He tùrther characterises
Expressionist drama as "cheap banality standing next to grotesque powei' (xxxi). Ulrich
WeiBtein mentions the advantages of an application of Kayser's ideas:
Perhaps the expressionist distortions are more closely related to the grotesque which, in Wolfgang Kayser's opinion, reveals a rift between the nominal and the phenomenal world, and which shows man to be il1 at ease in the presence of events and situations eluding his grasp. just as Worringer daims primitive man to have been in the face o f a temeing, anonymous and insautable nature. (23)
Some of the Expressionist mias recognised this kinship with the grotesque. Yvan Ooll's
essay "Das Über&ama", wrinen in 1 9 19 st the height of the Expressionist literary
movement, argues that t m e art should possess a grotesqumess that does no< cause Isughter:
"Art is meant to tum a person into a child again. The simplest way to achievc tks goal is
through the use of the grotesque, but only when it does not incite laughter" (E@ressioniswmsL
Mantfesie und Dokumente 7 1 2). Goll does not go into great detail about what he means by
grotesque methods. He -es that they should be capable o f terriQing the "ordiniary man"
and that they must include both enormity and abnormality in order to overcome the immense
stupidity and monotony of mankind.
Recently, there has been a growhg scholarly interest in employing grotesque theory to
fbrther understand the Expressionist movement. Sandigls Deutsche Dramaturpie des
Gmtesken um die Jahrhrmdertwende begins with Kayser, works back through a brief history
of the grotesque, looks at such "forerunners" as Lenz, Grabbe and--in p a t e r detail-
Büchner, and concludes with discussions of early Expressionist or, in most cases, proto-
Expressionist drama. Significantly his discussion is focused on the work of two drarnatists
who specialise in satire: Wedekind and Sternheim. The association of the grotesque with
satire and black comedy is a close one. The playwright uses the grotesque weapons of
distonion and exaggeration as a scalpel to reveal the social ills and absurdities. His aims are
simi lar to those of nahiralism; the tools, however, are different. The satirJgrotesque
connection is not a new one. Stemheim and Wedekind are the two writers most fiequently
described as grotesque. Julius Bab, already in 19 17, wmte that Steniheim's plays are the
expression of a sensibility "that perceives and presents the intellectual person merely as a ..-
fantastic Puppet and that, therefore, always finds itself on the border of the grotesque.""'
The rnetaphysical or noumenal aspect of the grotesque, familiar to Romantic criticism and
reinterpreted by Kayser, is less often discussed in connection with drama. H. R. Winfned
3
Pathé's 1990 study, Dar Gmteske in den Dmmen Emsi Barlochs touches on the reiigious
aspects of the grotesque it is stili, however, primaril y i nfluenced by the worlc of Sandig and
the grotesqu&l&k humour tradition. In dramatic criticism, the grotesque is oAm
synonymous with tragicomedy, a term applied to playwrights as different as Hugo and
~ürrenrnat.~"
Perhaps the rtason that thcre are not more explorations of the grotesque element in the
German Expressionist movement than there are is that great dificulties exist in defining both
these fields. For critics of a n and literature. Geman Expressionism is an elusive movement.
Its rightto exist as a usetiil term of classification has been challenged. Indiqxï, it is a difficult
task to define a movement which sought strenuously to define and redefine itself, a
movement that gluttonously cannibalised so many other movements and styles, both ancient
and modem. Many studies have been devoted primarily to understanding what
~x~ressionism is and what is an Expressionist.
The Expressionists themselves were too occupied with the novelty of their revolt, its
strangeness, to concem themselves much with its antecedents in art history. At most, they
would daim allegiance with the a n of supposedly "primitive" cultures. Individual artists wiii
admit to their influences: Kokoschka acknowledges his debt to both Grünewald and Dürer,
Barlach praises the Gothic fonn. However, there is no theoretical discussion of the
grotesque. The Expressionists lived in a time of multiple artistic revolutions, each staking its
daim for greater artistic authenticity. Authenticity, to the Expressionists, impiied novelty, a
clean break fiom the compt past. These arîists aspired to fiIl what they considered to be a
cultural vacuum. Rudolf Kayser writes of the new style:
The new drarna wuld begin oniy recently because the preceding century l ivd by conventions and routines and had neither the impulse nor the courage for creation. Without an intellectual tradition, it had no centre fiom which a style coufd have O rigi nated. (bressionismus. Manifeste und Dokumente, 46 1 )
The saion style, which characteriseci nineteenth-century German art, seemed hopelessty staid
to the new generation of artists. Impressionism setmcd to be tao concemed with the material
world, too unspiritual. Expressionism did not want to be associated too closely with the
more popular artistic movernents of its tirne. The word "grotesque", commoniy used in the
romantic vocabulary, was perhaps not unf'amiliar enough to interest the Expressionists as
much as may be supposed by the appearance of grotesque motifs in much of their art.
It is understandable, perhaps, that in this scenario, the tantaiising theoretical potentials of
the grotesque are often overiooked. For the grotesque itself is also a subject of lively
academic debate. Why a work is perceived to be grotesque and whether such a chimerical
thing as a "grotesque aesthetic" can exist are both dinicult questions. These are the problems
inherent in attmpting to define an aesthetic that histoncally has been defined as marginal.
even blasphemous and heretical. The early discussions of the grotesque, therefore, are either
framed as a denunciation of an aberrant style, something insidiously evil or the analysis of a
mere curiosity, not to be takea seriousiy. This marginal status of the grotesque shows a
kinship to the German Expressionist movernent, which at its inception and notably a ~ e r was
called a decadent and a degenerate movement, its artists reviled as mad and perverted.'
Consequently, in approaching the history and theory of the grotesque, one is dealing with a
suppressed history without a well-formulated aesthetics. îhe problem is somewhat different
in the case of Expressionism, a movement that probably produced more manifestos jk year . than any other artistic movement. The problem of examining the grotesque aesthetic in
German Expressionist drama and film is compounded by the fact that most existing
grotesque theory is primarily devoted to an and architecture. Theones of grotesque d m do
exist: fiom Victor Hugo's famous "Preface to Cromwell" to the self-styled grotesque drama
of Pirandello and D'Annunzio; these theories. however, are less comprehensive than the work
done on the visual arts. Does this fact signify that the grotesque is primarily a visual
medium? This is a knotty problem and 1 believe the answer for the twentieth century is
"yes", if only because vision is the most codifieci of the senses, the one with which we are
perhaps quicker to perceive an aberration or an oddity, a fault in the system. As early as
179 1, J o h a ~ Fiorillo described the grotesque as the "response of the eye" (cited in Burwick
67). Langage, however, is also a rich source of the grotesque because it is, intrinsically, a
highly structured system of meaning. There ais0 are "grotesque" musical pieces, ones that
employ unexpected di stortion, dissonance, and debasement wit hin an othenuise "normal"
stmcture.
My interest in analysing the grotesque in German Expressionist film and drama developed
fkom the idea that the marginalized theory and the reviled art and literary movement together
would alchemically create something whole. M e r several attempts, 1 diswvered that, by its
very nature, the grotesque always operates in a cultural1 y and ideologicall y speci fic manner.
Thus, a large part of the problem in elucidating a German Expressionist grotesque was the
controveny and confusion over what Expressionism addresses ideologically and what its
place is In the histones of culture and aesthetics. It is absolutely necessary to understand
both the ability of the grotesque to incarnate itself in various ways and the commonality
shared b; ail of the& historically specific permutations of the grotesque-what it means when
one describes sornething is grotesque-before proceeding to discuu it in terms of German
Expressionism. - Although one can find examples of grotesque art in almost every period in the history of
western a* certain penods came to be most closely identified with it.' Kayser identifies
three of these penods: the transition tiom the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, the romantic
period at the end of the eighteenth century, and the developrnent of modem m at the a
beginning of the twentieth century. To this list, we cuuld add the first and second centuries
of the Roman Empire.
A Britf History o f the Grotesque
The word grotesque is generally acknowledged to have originated in Itaiy during the late
fifieenth century. The terni grotesque was first coined as the result of a misconception. The
discovery of Nero's enormous palace, the Domus Aurea, was one of the most exciting events
of the 1480s. Artists rushed to see the barely uncovered, beautifMy preserved remnants of
antiquity, risking their lives by descending into the earth to gaze by lamplight on the delicate
fiescoes of the alleged pleasure dorne of the insane emperor. The Domus Aurea was
assumed, erroneously, to have been an immense cavern under the earth rather than a fiee
standing ~tnicture.~' The terni grotesque is based on the Latin word for cave, "ptto." - Grotesque art signifies, IiteraI l y, cave art. -So, the .word grotesque was coined to describe
some of the marginal decorations of these misrecognised "~averns.~ These decorations were
of a very specific nature: they were gracefùl illustrations, occupying the margins of fiescoes;
they were, however, so arresting as to overpower the more conventional rnyth~logial
subjects in the central panel. These marginal decorations fieely wmbined architectural,
vegetable, human and animal forms in a fice, highly styliseci manner. IInc combinations
went against a11 Renaissance notions of harmony and nature.
Such combinations were not entirely unknown in the fifieenth century: medieval Europe
is rich in similarly fantastic gargoyies, manuscript illuminations and church carvings. What
astonished the Renaissance sensibil ity, however, was the revelation that such stylistic
aberrations had existed in classical antiquity. The fifieenth-century view of antique art was
one of harmony and beauty. The sculpture and arkhitecture of Greece a n d morc importantly,
Rome were upheld as ideals to emulate. There was no room for monsters, for grotesques in .*-
this view of antiquity; yet the monsters were there. albeit marginal and charming.""
The emergence of the grotesque in the Renaissance reopened an aesthetic conflict that had
flared up periodically since antiquity. The conflict is irreconcilable because the grotesque
presents a unique aesthetic problem: it is a defiant challenge for representational art but can
never be contiised with abstract art. Like a walking spirit that cannot live in heaven or on
earth, it lives in two worlds or no world. The appearance of the grotesque signais that there
is something beyond or beneath the ordinary recognisable world. but, in order to Se miiy
grotesque, art does not detach itself completely fiom the ordinary worId. The individual
elements of the grotesques in the Domus Aurea are al1 taken h m nature o&om classicai
architecture; however, they are put together in such a way that we are wamed that the laws of
nature do not apply here. Thus, the omaments belong neither to the natural world nor to the
supernatural world. This provisional transcendence of nature led the grotesque style to be
sometirnes called the sogni dolpittori (the dreams of painters). ïhe grotesque also resists
being confin.& to the category of pure omamentation, although in the Renaissance world it
was constrained to this fùnction. It is art; but it is not quite m. Much has been made .
historically of the sinister power of fascination that grotesque art exerts over its viewers.
Often, it was observed that a grotesque marginal illustration was so interesfing that it
provideci competition for the central attraction. This observation upsets the belief thrt it is
the beautiful and ideal alone that can command our attention. The grotesque is not ba@fiil;
it can even be repeilent; it has, however,…