Dramatic Metaphors of Fascism and Antifascism

Leah Hadomi

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9783484651128
• eBook ISBN: 9783110941395
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

"Yet the dark places are the centre" claims George Steiner in "The Bluebird's Castle". Any attempt to analyze rationally the predominating barbaric phenomenon of the 20th century, namely the Holocaust and its Fascist background, challenges the limits of human understanding. The phenomenon of the Holocaust is a consequence of these "dark places" where again in Steiner's words "we have passed out of the major order and symmetries of Western civilization". A final understanding of the theme is beyond the limits of rationality and may also be viewed in the light of Adorno's "no poetry after Auschwitz". Nevertheless, the need to attempt reflective and creative 'work' on this topic continues. The aim of the book is to study the relationship between ideology and myth as they function diversely in Fascist and Antifascist drama. All the plays discussed are constructed as a paradigmatic constellation between myth and ideology, coordinated by a central and homogeneous political intent. The difference between them lies in their Fascist or Antifascist attitude. The plays analyzed were chosen for the treatment of a common thematic Ur-myth: the post-figuration of the return of the prodigal son and the story of the crucifixion from the New Testament. The 'prodigal cluster' includes plays by Franz Theodor Csokor, Ernst Wiechert and Max Frisch, the 'sacrificial cluster' plays by Otto Erler, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and George Tabori. As an introductory analysis, the theme of the artist and his mission is treated in two plays written in the pre-Nationalsocialist period: "Der Einsame. Ein Menschenuntergang" by Hanns Johst and Bertold Brecht's reaction to this play in "Baal". A final analysis deals with the fusion of mythologems and ideologems as demonstrated in two plays dealing with the New Myth of Germania by Richard Eutinger and Heiner Müller.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• Preface: Attitudes. Fascism and Antifascism - “keep watch over absent meaning”
• CHAPTER I: Introduction
• Facism and Antifascism as Postulated by Drama - “Myth would seem to be the radicalization of a hypothesis”
• Nationalsocialist Fascism - A Political Agenda as Dramatic Form
• The Discursive Space between Myth and Ideology
• Dramatic Strategies - The Coincidental Contrary and the Contradictory
• CHAPTER II: Precedents
• The Artist/Führer as Dramatic Experience - “denounces thought as experience”
• Brecht’s Baal (1917/19) as Opposed to Johst’s Der Einsame. Ein Menschenuntergang (1917/19)
• CHAPTER III: Strategies - Contrary and Contradictory The Son’s - Soldier’s Homecoming - “the undesired return”
• Emst Wiechert - Der verlorene Sohn (1935)
• Franz Theodor Csokor - Der verlorene Sohn (1934)
• Max Frisch - Nun singen sie wieder (1945)
• Versions of the Crucifixion - “the disaster which is outside history but historically so”
• Otto Erler - Thors Gast (1937)
• Rainer Werner Fassbinder - Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod (1978)
• George Tabori - Die Kannibalen (1968), Mein Kampf (1987), Jubiläum (1983), Die Goldberg Variationen (1991)
• CHAPTER IV: Germanomania
• Dramatization of Mythologems and Ideologems - “It is not thought that disaster causes to disappear”
• Richard Euringer’s Deutsche Passion 1933 and Heiner Müller’s Germania Tod in Berlin (1956/71)
• Two Versions of the Coincidental Discursive Space between Class and Nation
• Plot and the Versions of the Coincidental
• The Contrary and the Contradictory as Coded by Characters
• Mythologems and Ideologems in Contrary and Contradictory Strategies
• The Theatrical Presentation as an Ideologem
• Concluding Remarks
• CHAPTER V: Conclusion
• Theater as Political Message Bearer - “the dark places are the center. Pass them by and there can be no serious discussion of the human potential”
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX