Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...

of ekphrasis in both produces a certain ambiguity between distance and empathy
toward the protagonist, which the novel achieves through free indirect discourse,
and the film by assigning different perspectives to different types of ekphrasis. In
Feuchtwanger’s novel, the use of free indirect discourse for many ekphrases from
Goya’s perspective on the one hand gives access to Goya’s thoughts and
perceptions, but on the other, the narrator’s ironic stance also places the reader at
a distance from the protagonist. Thus, in spite of reproducing the character’s
perspective and perception, this device achieves a certain degree of distance
between the reader and the characters, since the reader has access to the
characters’ minds and thoughts only via the language of the narrator. 173 Moreover,
in Feuchtwanger, the use of free indirect discourse is often coupled with strong
narratorial irony, especially in the trochees at the chapter endings. These trochaic
four-feet lines at the end of each chapter are an imitation of the verse meter of old
Spanish Romanceros, that is, folk ballads, associated with Lope de Vega,
Calderón de la Barca and the Cantar del mio Cid (Song of the Cid). Narratively,
Feuchtwanger’s often deliberately simple verses serve as conclusion or summary
of what happened in the chapter. Moreover, not only do the verses in this
historical novel achieve a certain Spanish “local color” (cf. Washausen 102) by
pointing to an old Spanish tradition, but they also emphasize Goya’s “low” origin
and his connection to the people, rather than nobility. 174 But the use of this
traditional verse meter in a novel otherwise written in very contemporary and
173 Cf. Gerald Prince, Narratology: the form and functioning of narrative (Berlin, New York,
Amsterdam: Mouton Publishers, 1982) 48; and Rimmon-Kenan 115.
174 This emphasis on Goya’s low origin, prevalent throughout the novel, is another one of
Feuchtwanger’s liberties with history, although Goya was in fact born in a respected middle class
family (cf. Hermand 81).
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