Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...
Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...
Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...
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anger <strong>at</strong> his constant surveillance <strong>by</strong> the FBI in America. 157 On the other hand,<br />
Feuchtwanger’s absence from the GDR allowed him gre<strong>at</strong>er distance from the<br />
Marxist socialist party dict<strong>at</strong>es in postwar East Germany. Thus, for example,<br />
Goya is not presented as a typical positive hero <strong>of</strong> social realist novels, but is a<br />
flawed and self-contradictory character. Likewise, the cruelty <strong>of</strong> the inquisition is<br />
not countered <strong>by</strong> represent<strong>at</strong>ives <strong>of</strong> the good, innocent proletari<strong>at</strong> as a Marxist<br />
perspective would prefer (cf. Fischer 202).<br />
Goya, Konrad Wolf’s film adapt<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> Feuchtwanger’s novel, was a<br />
German-Soviet co-production and was hailed in contemporary East German<br />
reviews as film with special relevance to socialist countries due to its spiritual and<br />
aesthetic qualities and its abilities to unite artistic value and mass appeal:<br />
Der "Goya"-Film nimmt in der Filmproduktion der DDR wie der<br />
sozialistischen Länder einen besonderen Pl<strong>at</strong>z ein, nicht nur wegen seiner<br />
geistigen und ästhetischen Qualitäten, sondern aus zwei weiteren Gründen.<br />
Er zielt darauf, dem Auseinanderklaffen von Kunstwert und<br />
Massenwirkung, das unsere Produktion und unser Programm belastet,<br />
entgegenzuwirken durch einen St<strong>of</strong>f, der den so <strong>of</strong>t mit Flachheit und<br />
Buntheit erkauften Schauwert in den Dienst eines philosophischen und<br />
ästhetischen Anspruchs stellt. 158<br />
157 Cf. Hermand 91, and Ludwig Maximilian Fischer, Vernunft und Fortschritt: Geschichte und<br />
Fiktionalität im historischen Roman Lion Feuchtwangers (Königstein: Forum Academicum in d.<br />
Verlagsgruppe Athenäum, 1979) 160<br />
158 Peter Ahrens, “Goya,” Die Weltbühne, Berlin/DDR, 28 Sept. 1971. “<strong>The</strong> Film Goya has a<br />
special place in the film production <strong>of</strong> the GRD as well as <strong>of</strong> the socialis countries, not only<br />
because <strong>of</strong> its intellectual and aesthetic qualities, but for two further reasons. It aims to counter the<br />
division between artistic value and mass entertainment which burdens our production and our<br />
programs, and it does so with the help <strong>of</strong> a them<strong>at</strong>ics th<strong>at</strong> places the visual, which is so <strong>of</strong>ten fl<strong>at</strong><br />
or tawdry, in the service <strong>of</strong> a philosophical and aeshtetic goal” (my transl.).<br />
127