New German Critique, No. 49, Special Issue on Alexander

new critiquegqrpian I L Number49 Winter1990

AlexanderKluge The Assaultof the Presenton the Restof Time EricRentschler RememberingNot to Forget: A RetrospectiveReading of Kluge'sBrutality in Stone TimothyCorrigan The Commerceof Auteurism:a Voice withoutAuthority HelkeSander "You Can't AlwaysGet WhatYou Want": The Filmsof AlexanderKluge HeideSchliipmann Femininityas ProductiveForce: Kluge and CriticalTheory GertrudKoch AlexanderKluge's Phantomof the Opera AlexanderKluge On Opera, Filmand Feelings RichardWolin On MisunderstandingHabermas: A Responseto Rajchman

JohnRajchman Rejoinder to Richard Wolin Marc Silberman Remembering History:The Filmmaker Konrad Wolf

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Editors:David Bathrick(Ithaca), Helen Fehervary(Columbus), Miriam Hansen (Chicago), AndreasHuyssen (New York),Anson Rabinbach (New York),Jack Zipes (Minneapolis).

ContributingEditors: Leslie Adelson (Columbus), Geoff Eley (AnnArbor), Ferenc Feher (New York),Agnes Heller (New York),Peter U. Hohendahl(Ithaca), Douglas Kellner (Austin),Eberhard Kn6dler-Bunte (Berlin), Sara Lennox (Amherst),Andrei Markovits (Cambridge),Biddy Martin (Ithaca), Rainer Naigele (Baltimore),Eric Rentschler (Irvine),Henry Schmidt (Columbus), James Steakley (Madison).

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ProjectAssistant: Cynthia Herrick (Ithaca).

Publishedthree times a yearby TELOS PRESS, 431 E. 12thSt., New York,NY 10009. NewGerman Critique No. 49 correspondsto Vol. 17,No. 1. ? New GermanCritique Inc. 1990.All rightsreserved. New GermanCritique is a non-profit,educational organiza- tionsupported by theDepartment of GermanLiterature of CornellUniversity and by a grantfrom the Departmentof Germanand College of Humanitiesof Ohio State University.

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Number 49 Winter1990

SPECIAL ISSUE ON ALEXANDER KLUGE

Tableof Contents

ARTICLES: Introduction...... 3 MiriamHansen The Assaultof the Present on theRest of Time ...... 11 AlexanderKluge RememberingNot to Forget: A RetrospectiveReading of Kluge's Brutalityin Stone...... 23 EricRentschler The Commerceof Auteurism: a Voicewithout Authority...... 43 TimothyCorrigan "You Can't AlwaysGet WhatYou Want": The Filmsof Alexander Kluge...... 59 HelkeSander Femininityas ProductiveForce: Kluge and CriticalTheory ...... 69 Heide Schliipmann AlexanderKluge's Phantom of the Opera ...... 79 GertrudKoch On Opera, Filmand Feelings...... 89 AlexanderKluge On MisunderstandingHabermas: A Responseto Rajchman...... 139 RichardWolin Rejoinderto RichardW olin ...... 155 JohnRajchman RememberingHistory: The FilmmakerKonrad Wolf...... 163 Marc Silberman

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:51:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions =TELO S A QuarterlyJournal of CriticalThought Sinceits first issue in May 1968, Ilos has introducedinto the English-speaking worldthe best trends in continentalradical thought. Committed to thedevelop- mentof an Americanversion of CriticalTheory unencumbered by conformist communicationtheory or Freudianism,ilos continuesto focuson international issuesand, increasingly,on a criticalanalysis of Americansociety. ISSUE No. 82 WINTER 1989-90 Articles Meuschel: TheEnd of "East GermanSocialism" Adam: Israeland South Africa: Conflict Resolution in Ethnic States Elkins: ThePolitics of Mystical Ecology Roth: Durkheimand GenderEquality Lichtblau: GenderTheory in Simmel,Tdnnies and Weber

Notes Does CriticalTheory Have a Future? TheElizabethtown Telos Conference(February 23-25, 1990) Adler:Norberto Bobbio at 80 Glotz and Kallscheuer:An Interviewwith Norberto Bobbio Barbiero: Afterthe Aging of the New Music Hullot-Kentor: Barbiero,Eno and New AgeMusic Luke: XmasIdeology Piccone: XmasIdeology or Reaganism?

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This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:51:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions boundary2 Subscriptionprices aninternational journal of literature andculture $30institutions PaulA. Bove, editor $18individuals NewAmericanists: Revisionist Interventions intothe Canon Singleissue price $10 17:1(Spring 1990) DonaldE. Pease,special issue editor Contents TheRes Publica of Letters /Michael Warner TheRationale for "The American Romance" /John McWilliams Scarcity,Subjectivity, andEmerson /Wai-chee Dimock HearingNarrative Voices in Melville's Pierre /Priscilla Wald DukeUniversity Press JournalsDivision TheRhetorical Use and Abuse of Fiction: Booksin Late JournalsDivision Eating 6697College Station Nineteenth-CenturyAmerica/ Steven Mailloux DurhamNC 27708 MaternalDiscourse and the Romance ofSelf-Possession inKate Chopin'sThe Awakening /Ivy Schweitzer Realism,Ideology, and the Novel in America (1886-1896): Chang- ingPerspectives inthe Work of Mark Twain, W. D. Howells,and HenryJames /Robert Weimann AmericanLiterature and the New Historicism: The Example of FrederickDouglass /Gregory S. Jay "Oursby the Law of Nature": Romance and Independents onMark Twain'sRiver /Howard Horwitz CatalogingtheCreatures ofthe Deep: "Billy Budd, Sailor" and the Riseof Sociology /Susan Mizruchi Violence,Revolution, andthe Cost of Freedom: John Brown and W.E. B. DuBois /William Cain

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This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:51:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Introduction

Miriam Hansen

In the UnitedStates, the criticaldebate on AlexanderKluge's work has onlyjust begun, thanksto a comprehensiveretrospective of his filmsorganized by StuartLiebman and sponsoredby the GoetheInsti- tuteand AnthologyFilm Archives. A retrospective,Kluge might say, is a bitlike an inventoryof boxes leftbehind in thebasement after one has moved to anothercity - the boxes stillcontain some usefulthings, thoughone's currentlife is elsewhere.In Kluge'scase in particular,the relationshipbetween author and oeuvreis a problematicone. Com- paredto themain body of the so-called New GermanCinema, his films havemost persistently refused a statusas "works"which could be circu- latedand canonizedor, forthat matter, translated and exported. Forone thing,this resistance is an effectof the films' textual strategies - theirstylistic heterogeneity, openness, incompleteness, their chal- lengeto the"film in thespectator's head." These strategiesundermine the closuretypical not onlyof the classicalHollywood film but also of the masterpiecesof art cinema.But beyondformalism, Kluge's films are not as easilyassimilated to auteurialconsumption as, forinstance, thework of directors Herzog, Fassbinder, or Wenders,because Kluge's authorshipoften takes the form of an interventionin a pragmaticcon- text,in a particularconstellation of public life.Thus, his filmsusually belongto a largerconfiguration of events and discourses;they respond to specificpolitical conflicts, to historicalmoments and movements such as the incipientstudent movement, the Hiiuserkampf(the fight againstreal-estate speculation in theFrankfurt Westend), or thespiral of terrorismand statesurveillance. When I recallthe filmsI saw at the time of their German release, Artistsunder the Big Top:Perplexed (1967),

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Part-TimeWork of a DomesticSlave (1973), In Dangerand Dire Distress... (1974), and StrongmanFerdinand (1976), I am less likelyto remember a filmictext than particularsituations of reception,discussions, and controversiesthat the films occasioned and in whichthey - and Kluge himself- participated.The films'dependency on a performativecon- textis, of course,also due to thefact that the filmmaker in thiscase is also a writer,theorist, teacher, lawyer, and organizer. It is a topos of Klugecriticism, using one ofhis own metaphors,that his workresembles a "constructionsite." The object of construction, as readersof Klugeknow by now,is notjust theindividual film or the oeuvre,but the "public sphere"(Offentlichkeit) in the emphatic sense of the word: the context,horizon, or relationship(Zusammenhang) in whichexperience can be articulated,compared, and reflectedupon. Because of itstechnical and aestheticaffinity with the discourseof experience (associations,mixed materials,floating temporalities), the cinemaassumes a particularsignificance for the organization of public life,including the conditionsof feelingand intimacy.In thatsense, filmhistory too, with its boulevards, detours, and dead ends,is a constructionsite, as open-endedas most of Kluge's films.If fewof his filmscould be said to "succeed" as integralor completeworks, most of themwill contain some sequenceor momentswhich reveal an alterna- tivevision of cinema, which suggest relations between the film and the viewers'experience that differ from those reproduced in thedominant media. In itsemphasis on theecology of public life, then, Kluge's conceptof cinema is usefulto anyfilm practice that is committedto thear- ticulationof marginal,suppressed, distorted, co-opted discourses of experience,whether or not one sharesKluge's particularpositions. Kluge'slinkage of filmpractice with a politicsof the public sphere is not limited,however, to the institutionof cinema.On thecontrary, because Kluge has no illusionsconcerning the "illusionthat the cinema [. . .] willhave a triumphalentry into the 21st century," he has tem- porarilyshifted the focus of his activitiesto anotherscene: indepen- denttelevision. Kluge has notmade a feature-lengthfilm in morethan fouryears but insteadhas been producinga seriesof roughly30-minute clipsfor a weeklyprogram broadcast by one of the new,privately owned networksin Germany.'This shiftin focus,Kluge insists,does

1. On a selectionof Kluge's televisionwork see MargaretMorse, "Ten to Eleven: Tele- vision by Alexander Kluge," 1989 AmericanFilm InstituteVideo Festival (Los Angeles: The American Film Institute,1989) 50-53; Miriam Hansen, "Reinventingthe Nickelodeon:

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:52:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MiriamHansen 5

not mean he has abandoned the cinema as a public form;rather, he viewshis televisionwork as a hibernatingstrategy, based on a realistic assessmentof the conditionsof filmproduction, distribution, and ex- hibitionin the FederalRepublic today. At the same time,Kluge's shift to televisionrepresents the logical developmentof one aestheticper- spectivein his films:the concernwith opera thatculminated in The Powerof Emotion (1983). The parametersof the video clip seem especial- lywell suited to Kluge'srevisionist crossing of opera and film.The two translationsthat appear in thisissue - excerptsfrom his book TheAs- sault ofthe Present on theRest of Time, and selected writingson opera - among otherthings provide an explanatorybackground for the filmmaker'scurrent investment in television. The articlesframed by the two translationsoriginated as contribu- tionsto a symposiumon Klugeheld in conjunctionwith the retrospec- tiveof his films.The symposiumtook place at the CUNY Graduate Centeron 28 October 1988, and broughttogether scholars and filmmakersfrom the FederalRepublic and the UnitedStates. The papers publishedhere document the beginnings of a discussionwhich reflects both a timelag in the criticalreception of Klugein thiscountry and a certaindivergence between German and Americandiscourses on film and cinema.Unfortunately, the two papers dealing with Kluge's more properlyliterary work - byAndreas Huyssen and FredricJameson - could notbe includedin thisissue. Missing as wellare theresponses to the papers by symposiumparticipants - preciselythe public dimension of the event- in particularthe interventionsof YvonneRainer and AnnetteMichelson.2 The symposiumdiscussion centered on twoissues: Kluge's status as an auteur(the subject of TimothyCorrigan's paper), and the question of Kluge'ssexual politics. The critiqueof representationsof femininity in Kluge'sfilms began withthe polemics against Part-Time Work of a Do- mesticSlave in thefeminist film journal Frauen und Film (no. 3, 1974); in

Notes on Kluge and EarlyCinema," October46 (Fall 1988): 178-198;Andreas Kilb, "Der lange Abschieddes Herrn K.," Die Zeit 1 July1988: 15-16; DieterJeuck and GuntramVogt, "Fernsehenohne Ermissigung:Alexander Kluge und das Kultur- magazin'10 vor 11,' " FrankfurterRundschau 16 December 1989: ZB 3. Also see Yvonne Rainerand ErnestLarsen, " 'We Are DemolitionArtists': An Interviewwith Alexander Kluge," TheIndependent (June 1989): 18-25. 2. Fora morecomprehensive introduction to Kluge'swork, including an interview, articles,filmography, and bibliographysee thespecial issue of October magazine (no. 46, Fall 1988) editedby StuartLiebman, which served as a cataloguefor the retrospective.

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theAmerican context, Ruby Rich took up theissue under the rubric of "patriarchalmodernism," arguing that under the coverof modernist devicessuch as voice-overthe female subject was once again 'spoken' bya male narrator/author.3Atthe CUNY symposium,the feminist critique of Kluge'swork was at once reiteratedand complicated.Helke Sander,founding editor of Frauenund Film and co-authorof the first polemicalreview, both resumed and to some extentrevised her earlier critique,speaking from the difficultposition of a woman filmmaker competingwith an avant-gardeally. Heide Schluipmannelaborated on the conceptof a "femaleproductive force" in Kluge'stheoretical writings (explicitlybracketing the films),which she placed, on the one hand,in thecontext of the West German women's movement and debates on a feminist"counter public sphere"and, on the other,in the traditionof the FrankfurtSchool, especiallyMax Horkheimer's"Au- thorityand the Family"(1936). GertrudKoch opened up the discussion to considerthe link betweenerotics and aestheticsin Kluge's work,focusing on hisrevisionist use ofopera, in particularthe Carmen motif. The issue of Kluge's sexual politicsclearly dominated the discussion, threateningprematurely to foreclose,as some participants charged,a more comprehensivereception of a body of worklargely unknownin the UnitedStates. Yet the issue has implicationsbeyond Kluge'sindividual case and authorship- implicationsfot film theory and filmpractice today, especially within a feministframework. I will use my prerogativeas editorof thisspecial sectionto close my intro- ductionwith a fewremarks, in largepart provoked by the symposium. A feministreading risks missing what is interestingin Kluge'swork (or in any filmpractice as idiosyncraticand prismaticas Kluge's)if it isolatesrepresentations of femininityfrom, for instance, the peculiar representationsof masculinityin Kluge's films,or fromhis visionof theprecarious relations between the sexes. As Koch arguesin hercon- tribution,the discourseon gender,sexuality, and eroticsin Kluge's workis inseparablefrom the aesthetic theory implicit in thiswork and thereforecannot simply be reducedto ideologicalquestions, much as theyplay a partin it.A numberof Kluge'sfemale protagonists seem to

3. Ruby Rich,"She Says,He Says:The Powerof the Narratorin ModernistFilm Politics,"Discourse 6 (Fall 1983): 31-47; also see Heide Schliipmann," 'Whatis Differ- entis Good': Womenand Femininityin theFilms of Alexander Kluge," October 46 (Fall 1988): 129-150.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:52:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MiriamHansen 7 confirmcliches of feminineirrationality, intuition, impulsiveness, and inefficiency- thatis, ifone judges themby a realistic-narrativecon- cept of character.And the relationbetween authorial voice-over and female characteris no doubt problematic,but the voice-overin Kluge'sfilms neither presents a consistent,authoritative commentary nor is it alwaysidentified with the filmmaker's voice: thepolyphony of male/femalevoices in Artistsunder the Big Top,and the femaleprotagonists'voice-over in In Dangerand DireDistress furnish examples to the contrary. To theextent that Kluge's representations of femininity merely illus- tratehis theoreticalnotion of a specifically"female productive force," theyparticipate in the essentializingdiscourse criticized by Schliip- mann - a discoursethat identifies femaleness with mothering, reduces sexualityto sensuality,and borrowsa psychoanalytictheory of repressionstripped of sexual difference.The notionof a femalepro- ductiveforce functions by and largeas a metaphor(related to thetrope of "the filmin thespectator's head"), whichKluge uses to appropriate a set of sociallyand historicallysuppressed bisexual human qualities - spontaneity,curiosity, fantasy, memory, finetuning of the senses,a capabilityfor seeing connections - forhis own aesthetics,for his concept of cinema.Thus, thisnotion seems to supplyKluge with a socio- logicalrationalization for his aestheticpractice, for the montagetex- tureof his films,their episodic rhythmand associationalopenness. For centuries,male artistshave idealized the femaleimagination and havemounted their own aestheticidentities on thoseidealized notions of femininity- a phenomenonwe findin differentways in Richardson,Flaubert, Schlegel, Rilke, Breton, to mentiononly a few. In filmhistory, the femalemind has sufferedmuch less gloriously, since mainstreamcommercial cinema, predicating spectatorial pleasure on voyeurismand fetishism,has tendedto revolvearound images ofthe female body. This is slightlydifferent in thegenre of the art film and itsparticular variant of the woman's film, exemplified by directors such as Ophuls, Dreyer,or Bergman.While Kluge's idealization of the femalemode ofproduction belongs to thattradition, the material base of thismode of production,the sexual body, is rarelya sightin his films,although the few instances I recallare quite curious(cf. Gertie in StrongmanFerdinand). Even more curious are the representations of the male body in Kluge's work, oftenlinked to his critique of institutionalauthority and

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:52:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 8 Introduction militaryhierarchy. Relentless and microscopicdescriptions of male bodies and theirphysical functions- oftenmalfunctioning - can be foundthroughout Kluge's writings, from the 1962volume of Lebenslidufe (CaseHistories [New York: Holmes & Meier,1988]) through his mostre- centstories. The pale porous skinof AnitaG.'s lover,the few anxious hairs around his nipples; the imaginedpregnancy of Generalfeld- marschallBliicher; the hemorrhoids of OfficerGert P. whichjeopardize hisunit's march on Luga; theaccidental erection of Police Chief Scarpia in Kluge's rewritingof Tosca- these bodies are not only extremely uneroticbut theirmalfunctioning usually collides with the respective subjects'positions of power and authority.The films,by comparison, of- ferless diagnosticdetail but insteadfull views of agingand unshapely bodies:Dr. Buschin thebathtub in Artists under the Big Top, played by the self-parodisticAlfred Edel; StrongmanFerdinand, played by popular co- medianHeinz Schubertwho performsall kindsof unflattering positions and exercises;and, mostdisturbing, the slippagebetween male bodies and corpsesin Germanyin Autumn(1978), from Fassbinder's masturbation scene to the terrorists'presentation of the kidnappedindustrialist Schleyerin pajamas,intercut with footage of his coffin. Kluge's male bodies displaya masculinitycongealed into a phallic faiade, ruinsof desire.To the extentthat these bodies belong to figures of officialauthority (institutional peons, bureaucrats,"character masks"),their impotence and frailtyexpose anachronisticsocial and sexual powerstructures in the FederalRepublic; they are partof the large-scaleexorcism that Kluge has been conductingin relationto Ger- man history,especially in relationto the catastropheof the Third Reichand itscontinuing consequences (see EricRentschler's article in thisissue). To theextent that these bodies are deliberatelydevoid of erotic imagi- nationand attraction,they throw a shadowon thevery possibility of relationsbetween the sexes. In an interviewfollowing the release of Part-Time Workof a DomesticSlave, Jan Dawson observesthat Kluge's films"offer a fairlytough and basicallyunsympathetic treatment of the male characters;and a ratherdepressing view of the actual,possible relations be- tweenmen and women.The onlyinstance of tenderness I could find was thatbetween Leni Peickert[the circus director in Artists]and herfather; and thetenderness between them was made possiblelargely by thefact thatthe father was alreadydead." To whichKluge responds, "tenderness doesn't necessarilyhave anythingto do with actual presence. Presence,

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:52:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MiriamHansen 9 an actual situation,mostly destroys it."4 The withdrawalof feelingto thelevel of caring- tenderness,politeness, devotion to ajob - is the resultof a profoundskepticism toward the sexuallygrounded emotionsthat have governedcultural constructions of "love." If the notionof a femaleproductive force belongs to the contextof theearly 1 970s, to thebeginnings of the West German women's move- mentand Kluge'ssomewhat inadequate reception of it,his systematic analysisof "the powerof emotion"beginning in the 1980sfocuses on the generalmechanisms of erotic,aesthetic, and politicalillusions, re- flectingupon and to a degreerejecting his former idealizations.5 These mechanismsare epitomizedfor Kluge in the paradigmof the 19th- centuryopera, with its celebration of romantic passion and thedrama- turgyof immutablefate. The victimof the concatenationof feelings and fateis invariablyfemale; "In everyopera dealingwith redemption a woman gets sacrificedin Act V," reads an intertitlein ThePower of Emotion.But Kluge now viewsthe suppressionand co-optationof female subjectivityas part of the historicalde/formation of feelingsin bothsexes, in particularof heterosexual love and itscultural mystifica- tion as an anti-socialforce. What has changedtoo is the constellationof desireand history.In Kluge'searliest work, the impossibility of erotic relations was a measure ofthe inhumanity of socialand politicalconditions, culminating in the extremesituation of the story "Ein Liebesversuch"("An Experimentin Love") in CaseHistories: Auschwitz as the absolutenegation of desire. The minimalismof Kluge'sprose still harbors a romanticdimension in thegesture of refusal (the story describes, from the point of view of one of the guards,the failed attempt to get twoprisoners to mate).In his morerecent work, romantic love itselfappears complicit with the catas- trophesof Germanhistory, because it nourishes fictions of fate that pre- ventany alternativecourse of actionand usuallylead to murder,suicide,mass psychosis,and war."It beginswith being in love and ends in a divorce.It beginsin 1933 and ends in ruins.The greatoperas begin withthe promiseof intensifiedfeeling, and in Act V we count the dead." The politicalconclusion Kluge draws from this analogy is a plea forthe "disarmamentof the fifthacts" and the reconstructionof the

4. Jan Dawson, AlexanderKluge and The OccasionalWork of a FemaleSlave (New York: New YorkZoetrope, 1977) 29f. 5. I elaborateon thispoint in my article,"The StubbornDiscourse: History and Story-Tellingin theFilms of AlexanderKluge," Persistence ofVision 2 (Fall 1985): 19-29.

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so-called small feelings- discrimination(Fingerspitzengefiihl), capacities forseeing connections and forcooperation - feelingsthat partly recall thevirtues of thefemale productive force. Whetheror notdecomposing the discourse of passion (as Klugedoes in his "imaginaryopera guides")will lift him above thepitfalls of gen- dered representationremains questionable. What also remainsto be seen is theextent to whichthe program of "smallfeelings" can sustain therenewal of an aestheticform, the reinvention of cinema through television. Despite Kluge's militantmistrust of operatic desire (and libidinallygrounded desire in general),his workpartly appeals to the same sourceof fascination, albeit ironically refracted and analyzedinto itselements. The successof such recyclingvery much hinges upon the strengthof theunderlying ambivalence, the tension between reflection and fascination;without this tension, it riskslapsing into postmodern pasticheand nostalgia. If,as Koch pointsout, Kluge sides with Nietzsche against Adorno in his profoundmistrust of theredemptive value of eros,he is also more Nietzscheanin hispragmatism, in his attitudetoward illusion as simul- taneouslyfictitious and necessary(see TheAssault of the Present on theRest of Time,translated in thisissue). This is how I read the commentarythat introducesthe character Roswitha in thefirst shot of Part-Time Work of a DomesticSlave: "Roswitha feels within herself an enormouspower, but she knowsfrom movies that this power really exists." The somewhatil- logical"but" betweenthe two sentencesencapsulates the filmmaker's own navigationbetween fascination and critique,between a "pessi- mismof the intelligence" vis-A-vis the growing devastation of the media landscapeand an "optimismof thewill" toward strategies of hiberna- tionand change.6

6. AntonioGramsci, cited by StuartLiebman as an epigraphin his essay,"Why Kluge?"October 46 (1988): 8.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:52:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TheAssault of the Present on theRest of Time'

AlexanderKluge

CONCERNING THIS FILM PROJECT:

We speakabout the opera of the 19th century; itis consideredthe summit ofdramatic art. In thefilm Die Macht der Gefiihle (The Power ofEmotion), opera was likenedto a "power plant of emotions."The filmCarmen by CarlosSaura has shownthat such older forms of dramatic art tap certain currentsin spectators;this is somethingwe did not knowbefore. Bound up withour own centuryis another"power plantof emotions" - the cinema.Presumably, in the nextcentury, beginning sixteenyears from now, we willcall itthe cinema of the 20th century. This art formis ninetyyears old - a love affairof the century. The cinemacon- sistsof screeningrooms, movie palaces, theaters on thefront-lines, as well as many othergathering places, whereverfilms are shown for money.It also consistsof a seriesof fascinatingtechnical inventions which,though very elementary compared with the capabilities of elec- tronics,all have to do withwith the constructionof a timemachine. This cinema tells storiesand it has produced artisticfigures [Kunst- figuren]and idols. Obviously,this medium intriguesme. The present filmproject deals (1) withelements of cinema;

1. The followingpassages are takenfrom pages 7-8, 10-11,12-14, 27-30, 37, 55-56, 66-68, 79, 83-84,and 105-111of DerAngriffder Gegenwart auf die iibrige Zeit (Frankfurt/ Main: SyndikatAutoren und Verlagsgesellschaft,1985); thistranslation appears here withpermission of the author.Kluge's filmof the same title,which is only loosely based on thebook, was shownin theUnited States under the title The Blind Director. Its firstU.S. screeningwas at the New YorkFilm Festivalin October,1985. The transla- torswish to thankMiriam Hansen formany helpful suggestions.

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(2) withthe illusion of the city; (3) with people acting in the citywho have all kinds of things moving throughtheir heads: personal experiences,notions about cinema, the realityof the city. The stylisticlink, and simultaneouslythe basis fora certaincomic dimensioncorresponding to theseriousness of the situation, is thecat- egoryof time (see below). Cinematictime, the "condenseddramatic timeof cities," a lifetime- wrestlingwith time obviously occupies the course of our lives.The titleis a provisionalworking title. The film could also be called: The Mysteryof theFinal Hour (Last-Moment-De- tails)2,or: Cinemaand theIllusion of the City. Please trustme to develop the definitivetitle as the work progresses.

ThePlot The filmhas numerous plots. Five women are the main characters. [... ] All fivestories deal withthe oftenunnoticeable transitions between illusion and experience. This, you will easily observe, has been the subject matterof cinema fromthe start.The storyof the fivewomen is thereforewoven togetherwith a series of otherplot lines in the cityand with film sequences which in each case represent a cinematographic translationof theirversions of reality.[ ... ]

TheIllusion of the City and theEnd ofAll Illusion There is a promisewhich is foundedupon enclosed space. This promise, thatof the big city,is about 8,000 years old. From the beginning,films dealt with the strengthof thisillusion: a man comes to the cityin search of his fortuneand is struckdown by fate ... In recent years our big cities - theyare the citiesin which the fivewomen of the film live - have been reconstructed: subways, subterranean levels, new citycenters and pedestrian malls are being built. For many people this constructionis accompanied by the illusion that it leads further and furtheruntil cities suited to human taste evolve and the bustling yet livable citybecomes an idol. The actual situationreveals no ambition in this respect. The reconstructionof the cities will soon be final- ized. We will enter the 21st centurywith cities that are just like those we see before us. The cityas an idol, Renaissance Florence, for example, belongs to the currencyof illusion. With regard to the reserves of illusion on which we live, we have a

2. In English in the original - trans.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:52:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AlexanderKluge 13 seriesof currencyreforms ahead of us. One could say:the principle of the presentrages againstthe principleof hope and againstall the illusionsof the past. We livein a presentwhich for the first time has the potentialto become the power rulingover all other times.This is summed up by the phrase: the uncanniness of time.3 [ ... ] These elements- the present,the city,uncanniness, finality, illusion (as a rebellionagainst finality) - are not connectedin linearse- quence, but variationson themare the principleof the film.[... ]

In Closeup:Our Time In thisfilm I would liketo show a snapshotof the classicalcinema fromthe perspective of today. The emphasisis on: "the perspectiveof today."What do we mean by today?Such eventsas mass unemployment,the closing of shipyards,demands for the thirty-five hour week, structuralchange in the industrialareas, the consciousnessindustry, and so forth,have not been treatedin featurefilms. Each of these themes,however, poses a challengefor cinema, to be surenot onlyin the sense of how to representthem, but ratherin the sense of how to effecttheir cinematographic translation. The infiniteforms of filmic translation and theexperiential concerns ofour timerequire some restrictions.As faras thesocial dimension of presentexperience is concerned,this project focuses on the themeof temporalconflicts, of a strugglefor time. In the filmictranslation this correspondsto a critiqueof the categoriesof cinematictime.

KeyTerm: Essay Film As muchas possible,I intendto narratethis film in thestyle of a fiction film.However, the means cinema uses to expressits relation to thepres- entneed to be broughtup to date.Many thoughtful touches of mise-en- scenehave become hackneyed. In caseswhere experience, or, rather, its translationis blocked,we need to resortto theformat of the essay film. I knowof no otherpossibility to supplyso much materialso quickly.

TheSecret of the Final Hour The lead characters,the five women, the two stories from the forties, the sequencesin the filmwhich deal withthe illusionof the city,the handing over of the child,the threatof finalityand the people's rebellion

3. This is thesubtitle of Kluge'svolume of storiesNeue Geschichten: Hefte 1-18 (Frank- furta. M.: Suhrkamp,1977) - trans.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:52:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 14 TheAssault of the Present againstit (bothof whichare uncanny):each of theseis a swansong. A partingwith an illusion. Suchpartings do nothappen voluntarily. For example, I myselfwould notbe preparedto partwith the illusion that the cinema, to whichI de- votea largepart of myworking life, will have a triumphalentry into the 21stcentury. This idea enablesme to deal realisticallywith the danger thatthe phenomenon known as thenew media poses forfilm. One thus partswith an older illusionby constructinga new one. The latterbe- comesa realitywhen real materials are included.The road does notlead fromerror to truth,but rather to a moresubstantive process of illusion. In thisregard, the third part of thefilm tells the following story: Overthe course of the 19thcentury, oil lampssupersede candle light, gas lampssupersede the oil lamps,and electricitysupersedes all previous lightingfixtures. There appears to be a law thatseveral technologies can- notexist side by side.There have been reports,however, that the older technology,in itsterminal phase, brings forth once morea burgeoning arrayof forms. In anycase, with this late vitality the older modes of light- ingflare up and bloomanew. For an instantit seems that, at thelast moment,the beauty of the chandelier and gas candelabrawill allow them to outlivethe ugly new technology. Itwas, however, in eachcase only a swan song. Now the questionis: providedthat the secretof the finalhour bringsforth blooms in manyplaces of a society,can we thenspeak of an alliance of the threatenedwhich, once theyare united,could forcethe newtechnology into coexistence? This can be narratedjust likethe "De- constructionof a Crimethrough Cooperation" in ThePower of Emotion. But one couldalso describeit in termsof the elements at work in an industrial development.Such real developmentsalso involvepeople, and are markedby fateful blows, by escapes, affection, death, and so forth.[... ]

[FromSequence I:] THE HISTORY OF THE MEGALOPOLIS

Human beingshave livedin citiesfor only one per centof theirfive hundredthousand year old history.And thisinvention, the city,can disappear as fast as its ghostlyapparition began. [ ... ] The sequence containsa calm factualaccount similarto the one about theindustrial world's fair in thefilm The Power ofEmotion, but it is more elaborate. Shots thatcan only be made withthe Bavaria Studio's frontprojection device are mixed with trickshots and live footage. Somethinglike the followingwill be recounted:one can imagine a world

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:52:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AlexanderKluge 15 consistingof villages,indeed, the worlditself as a village.It would be characterizedby the absolute predominance of intimacy. Everyone cares foreach other;everyone keeps an eyeon each other.One can recreatean illusionof thiswith universal television; its reality, however, cannot be recreatedby anythingat all. We humanbeings have come to carrythe villageprinciple within us. It is an illusioninsofar as hardlyany modem personcould reallyput up withthe sense of time associated with the village. In comparison,our villagesin theFederal Republic are decentralizedurban installations. In otherwords: in thecourse of barelya hundredyears, perhaps only fifty years,the villageprinciple, that is, intimacyhas disintegratedin all of WesternEurope from an all-powerfulpresent into two components, the past and the hope fora future. One can see thisin a simpleexample. As longas mostlives were spent in villages,no act ofwar or theburning of a city(such as theburning of Magdeburg)could wipe out a countryor continent.The evenlysettled countrysideacted as a bufferagainst massive annihilation. Now, for aboutthe last five thousand years, the city has enteredthe picture. In it, humanbeings are crowdedtogether. This expresses itself above all in the sense of time: time becomes dramatic.Cities, says RichardSennett, open up thepossibility of channeling human aggressiveness into parallel pathsand therebyof liberatingit. The citadel,ambition, sacrifice, the public sphere, condensed time, the various arts of remembering, specialization,the separationof actorsand spectators,the principleof drama,and finallyelectrification, cables everywhere,war as a principle (ratherthan simply as somethingopportune) - theseare derivedfrom theinvention of thecity. In thisartefact, the city, which corresponds to everythingSigmund Freud discusses in his essayThe Future of an Illusion (StandardEdition XXI: 5-56),destructive forces have been strugglingwith constructivecombinations of forces issuing from the same illusion about thecity since its inception. Realities such as enclosedspace, condensed time,and a senseof dramaallow passionsand spontaneityto develop. Nothingelse we knowcan produceand organizemore intense concen- trationsof mental energies.In this way, a Babylon,a Florence,a Nuremberg,a Berlin,a Paris,and so forth,come intobeing. Then, too, citiesin the Ruhr,or a transitcity like Ulm arisewhen longings drive generationsout of smalltowns into district towns, state capitals or cos- mopolitancities. While people continueto amass illusionsallowing the cityto growinto a metropolis,decay necessarily also setsin so thatcities, becauseso muchis underconstruction, never really come intobeing -

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at leastnever in theform of thecity as an idol.Throughout, the uncon- strainedconflict of destructiveand constructiveforces in thecities (or on theplanet as a city)has an objectivelimit: in a situationin which public life and therealm of intimacy collapse simultaneously, in which villages disin- tegrateas citiesbecome more sprawling, people can no longerescape from one sphereto another.They cannot live this way. They would either im- plode or explode.In thisrespect cities are neverfinalized (endgidltig). [... .

We are lookingat ninetyyears of cinema. In termsof human life spans, this corresponds to threegenerations. In sixteenyears the question will arise: cinema in the 21st century? Our time shattersall temporal measures just as it obliterates spatial categories. Either we wait around or things go too fast. Thereforewe must reinterpretthe concept of drama.

[FromSequence II:] Filmingthe theme: What is a minute?At issueis one minuteamong the1440 minutes in a day.A minuteon itsown, extracted from this day, forexample a minutebefore death, would be somethingdifferent. We have,in turn,about 36,000such days between our birthand death.You treata minutecarefully ifyou are as forgetfulas RitaMerker. It's so easy to forget.She makesno progresswith her diary. Shortsequence of clocks, cameras, film projectors of various sizes, the Maltesecross. These are all clocks.Clocks do notreproduce the present; a moreuseful measure of timeis thepulse. In music:tempo ordinario. In theimage: a conductortakes his pulse. The orchestrawaits. The conduc- torraises his baton.The musicbegins. Filmspeed is anotherway to measuretime. Half the time in a movie theateris spentin thedark. The filmis illuminatedfor 1/48th of a second; thefilm's passage through the camera or projectortakes up another 1/48thof a secondduring which darkness prevails. That is, at the movies, oureyes look at somethingoutside for 1/48th of a second,and for1/48th of a second theylook inward.That is somethingvery beautiful. [ ... J NEW YEAR'S EVE 1900-1901.The 20thcentury commences. Several thingswill happen that nobody can quite imagine: (1) the destructiveweapons of the 20thcentury; (2) "the mythof the 20thcentury"; (3) the cityin the 20th century; (4) the cinema of the 20th century. Apartfrom the delightderived from flashing lights and the pleasure in

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movingimages (even meaningless ones), there is theoverwhelming need fora simple story:boy meetsgirl, or girlmeets boy, or cousinmeets cousine,etc. That's my idea, saysthe producer in 1901,now makea film out ofit. At any rate, that's how simplethe basic urge to watcha filmis, saysAnna Eilersas she is talkingwith the experienced box officecashier at theOlympia theater. Yet, she adds,the story was neverfilmed according to our wishes.There are alwaysthese ingredients: cancer, separa- tions,mistakes, happy endings, a hostof obstacles derived from the arse- nal of drama,but nevera storylike this: a boy meetsa girl,everything goeswell, they are compatible,and whenthey are 71 yearsold, they look back and thinkit quite nice thatthey met. For once, saysAnna Eilers, thiswould be a clearlydefined position. In accordancewith the montage of the entire film, the short history of thecinema alluded to here(seen from the vantage point of the question: whenwill the story boy meets girl4 finally be filmedwithout further ado?) is dividedamong differentscenes of the second and thirdsequences. It partlyinvolves self-contained scenes (dramatized), partly film clips (edited,optically transformed). NEW YEAR'S EVE 1918-1919.A partyconvention in the Prussian House ofLords. How one participantof this convention in 1918imagines WorldWar II: Ludendorffbought UFA; now it is takenover by Privy CouncillorHugenberg who alreadyowns the Scherlconglomerate; the Germancinema at its high point in 1942;films are shown in an areareach- ingfrom Bordeaux to Kharkov;the head of Germancinema is Associate JudgeDr. Pfennigwhom we see in a JU 52 as he fliesover his flickering empire;one dayhe is suddenlydethroned because he receiveda package ofblack market meat from the Prague studio; the film studios in Warsaw havenot been used sincethe Germanoccupation. Among mannequins, propsand costumes,in thewide spaces of illusion, sheltered from the rain, the caretakerand his wifehave setup theirnest, guarding these studios whichthe world has forgotten; with a smallgroup of friends they have little parties;using some costumes, they have fun and makeup littlegames, just as in the earlydays of the movies.At night,in the capitalof Austria [Ostmark],film workers re-cut the montage they produced during the day in orderto destroya piece ofthe "present" - theywant to remainin their privilegedpositions. Film historybegan with Lumiere's documentaries. Sincethen, documentation has been progressivelysuppressed. Through- out the war, Fred Wittlichof PK-Company tries to capture authentic

4. In Englishin the original- trans.

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images of battlescenes on celluloid.But wheneverhe rushedto the front,even at top speed,the battlewas over,and he foundthe troops playingcards. Now, finally, at theend ofApril, 1945, he was able to produce documentaryshots of thebattle for the newsreel scheduled to appear afterApril 8, 1945. In Tunisia,feature films belonging to theU.S. armywere captured in a Germantank offensive. Scenes in thePropagan- da Ministrywhile one ofthese films is screened.The Americans'greater skillas faras entertainmentvalue, i.e., the political in film,is concerned. Can we do it too? Firstattempts during the production of the German color filmMiinchhausen. [ . . .

[FromSequence III:] THE CINEMA ANIMAL

Portraitof a personaddicted to thecinema. The atmosphereis thesame as in SequenceII, thatis, still within Monday night. The animalis looking fora cinemait finds congenial. It is characterizedby a tendencyto view the realstreets as a moviewhile in thetheater it views things objectively. This speciesof animalis supposedlythreatened with extinction. [ ... ] A montagesequence, in partwith imaginary images: "In principle, whenwe performa rapidor acceleratedaction, we experiencea contrac- tionof time, but when we rememberthe action we expandits duration" (Jean Piaget, The Child'sConception of Time,New York: BallantineBooks, 1971:276). Clocks,a chronometerat work,a timeclock. "A diagramof homogeneoustime. Succession and durationas theculture in whichcon- ceptsbreed." "Grasping time is tantamountto freeingoneself from the present:not only to anticipatethe future on thebasis of regularitiesun- consciouslyestablished in thepast, but to unfolda seriesof conditions whichdo notresemble each otherand areonly linked ... bymovement. To comprehendtime, therefore, is to transcendspace through intellectual agility.This means, above all, reversibility. To know it, on theother hand, is to retraceit in eitherdirection and therebyto proceedbeyond the actual courseof events"(Piaget 283 ff.)."The stateof 'innocence'which pre- cedes thephase of criticalconstruction." "Realism is egocentric." "Let us imaginea creaturewho, from birth to death,does the same workuninterruptedly, always at thesame speed - forinstance, build- ingthe Great Wall of China. In his case psychologicaltime would coin- cidewith physical time ... " The durationscould be measuredin terms of the dimensions of what is constructed.There is a certainmoral Uto- pia in the idea that I could measure my life's capacities,even if it were

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:52:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AlexanderKluge 19 onlya questionof movingalong a straightstretch of road. Withoutde- toursI would have controlover my abilitiesto do good deeds. It will turnout thatthis reflection on the grammarof time in the friendly,simple time machines of the cinemacan be pursuedclearly onlyin documentaries.That filmis used to nourishillusion is reallya mistake.At themoment just beforedeath, mistakes in theform of sil- houettesenter the picture. Sequence of back-litshots, so-called silhou- ettes. Music. Stronglyimaginary. [ ... ]

APPENDIX Noteson Detailsin theScript Note 1: "POCKETS OF FATE" The bestway to measurethe gaps in a tragic,irrevocable system, the pocketof fate within it, is throughthe comic. For this purpose, the cinema has developedartistic figures [Kunstfiguren] who also formthe basis of the starsystem: perfection, in each case withone flaw.Because of theirscale as well as theirimperfections, these people are fascinating. These qualitiesnot only make them lovable, they also serveas thespectator'spoint of entry, the necessary discount. The fivewomen, supplementedby countless other persons as wellas thesix men whose actions populatethis film, imitate a typicaltrait of classicalmovie characters. Myambition is to showthat there are ways out ofthe irrevocability and the sheer"distended present" that the highpoint of the bestyears of our livesseem to be. This is thesignificance of the heading of the third sequence- thesecret of the final hour. It correspondsto thehistorical experiencethat something beautiful, useful, older, something that is vi- tally threatenedby new developments,engenders sympathyand mourningat the momentof itsdemise.

Note 2: THE PRESENT Developingprograms involves, above all, a decisionabout theflow of time: its acceleration,retardation, the time of experiencingit, response time,time to be gained,time to be lost,and so forth.The pro- ductionof the ability to remember,of a horizon,a perspective,of precision,certainty, movement (in twosenses, as motionand emotion)- all thisis realizedthrough ever so finemanipulations of time.Evidently timepossesses a grammar. In this respect the categoryof the present is a convention. Between "just now" and "already" there is a boundary (in terms of the Arriflex camera thisboundary has a durationof 1/48thof a second and a surface

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:52:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 20 TheAssault of the Present of 35mm)which represents the present. It is somethingimagined rather thansomething real. In themodem world,this next-to-nothing has, increasingly,passed itselfoff as something,indeed, as potentiallyevery- thing.The consensusamong people about what belongs to ourtime, what is importantenough for an announcementor a play,is decidedthrough categoriessuch as topicalityor "our present."Every earlier present had thetendency to do awaywith the past and to putlimits on thefuture. In our day,for the firsttime, the forcesof the presenthave the objective powerto close the horizonsof thefuture irrevocably and to cut offthe past.At any rate, the present thinks it could do so. "The past,however, is notdead; itis noteven past." And withouta futurehorizon, that is, with- outhope, people would not even have the strength to agreewith each other aboutwhat the present is. In thisrespect, each quantumof time says: "I was,I am, I willbe." And ifone looksclosely, it will add: "I sense,I could, I maynot, I wish,"and so forth.At least this is theway film time works.

Note 3: "DISTENDED PRESENT" The presentcould noteffect its seizure of power over other times if it werenot for something in humanbeings in complicitywith it. The latest researchcalls this the "distended present" (Brose). Professional qualifica- tions,expectations about life are beingdevalued on a largescale; people becomeunemployed, lose partsof their lives for which they have worked. Theycannot come to termswith this new situation simply in an objective way.Facts are one thingand thewishes that find these facts unbearable are somethingelse. Frequently, these people optfor temporary solutions afterthe defeat they have suffered. For example, they get a newjob,or (in relationships)a new partner because this does notinvolve a finaldecision. Somethingremains suspended between past and future- and we call thisthe present. It is somethingdifferentfrom waiting and somethingoth- er thanlife: a newway for fate to strike.In orderto describeit, one must recordthe gentler tones of time. Scenes emerge whose characteristics are neithertragic nor genuinelycomic, but oscillating.Something emerges thatis neitherdream nor reality.This happensvoluntarily, indeed, because people freelywill it. And whatI findmost important is thatthese newkinds of behavior are the opposite of ambivalence and irresoluteness. I would reallyprefer to recountall thisexclusively in the formof dramatizedstories. Because it occursin a singleplace and on a single day, the second sequence givesme the opportunityto narratein the manner of the fictionfilm. On the otherhand, the explosive forceof the

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:52:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AlexanderKluge 21 themedemands free (non-dramatized) modes of representation.I will tryto concentratethese at the beginningand end of thefilm.

Note 4: FINALITY As a categoryof the futureit is ratherunbearable. Imagination ex- haustsitself in denyingthis finality which is ultimatelydeath. In all cases in whichfinality is intuited,imagination (or desire)prefers the indefi- nite.In all cases in whichsomething is notyet definitively final, we de- mand certaintyand precision.In thisrespect, happiness, for example, should be somethingprecise - a sourceof the comic.

Note 5: THE FINALITY OF OUR CITIES One of theclearest expressions of finalityis enclosedspace. Anyone lookingat a tomb can see this. In December of 1983, Karl-HeinzBohrer, the new editorof the monthlyMerkur, called me. He askedwhether I couldwrite an essaywith thetitle: "The Finalityof Cities." I was takenaback. Up tillthen I had as- sumedas a matterof course that the renewal of our cities,the installation of pedestrianzones, undergroundmalls, subways, the establishment of satellitecities, and so forth,would continueuntil once againwe would livein citiesas I used to knowthem. I did some research,asked around. This illusionwas not mine alone. In reality,however, there is much to supportthe view that the cities, as theyare now constructed,will be our dwellingsas we proceedinto the 21st century. An essentialresult of my researchis thata chronicleof the modem city - no morethan its prehistory- cannotbe representedin theform of essaysor dramaticscenes. Rather,it is a cinematictheme. What is especiallyfascinating to me is the so-called"invisible city": the urban structurewhich is lodged in our nerves,feelings and knowledge.The urbanprinciple and the dramatic principle(of condensed time, of suspense)are likecousins. Correspond- ing to thisurban principleare unmistakablecharacters and destinies.

Note 6: PERSPECTIVEON THE CENTURY: NEW YEAR'S EVE, 1918 I intendto producethis sequence in collaborationwith Margarethe von Trotta.New Year's Eve, 1918(including New Year's Day) is a turning pointin our centurythat will never come again.World War I is stillfresh in people'sminds. It laid baresomething of the character of reality in the 20th century.By comparison, the perspectiveof New Year's Eve, 1900 (thatis, 1899-1900) is almost naivelyillusionistic - as ifthe 19thcentury were extendinginto the 20th. Now, however,on New Year's Eve, 1918,

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illusionsare scatteredto the windsonly to be replaced,however, by countlessnew ones. Butthe decisions ofJanuary, 1919 have not yet been made. Fora momentit seems as ifGermany could developin manydif- ferentdirections. On thisday, nobody governs anywhere. The leadersre- strainthemselves. In theformer Prussian House of Lords(the Landtag), the foundingconvention of the CommunistParty takes place. Rosa Luxemburgdelivers her speech, "Proletarians in Uniform."The leader- ship of thisnewly founded party is voteddown thatvery same night. This materialcan be seen in the contextof Margarethevon Trotta's Luxemburg-film;collaboration about this historic juncture makes sense.

Note 7: CHANGES OF TIME AND STYLE Justas thefilm The Power of Emotion dealt with elements of the opera, and Artistsunder the Big Top:Perplexed with aspects of the circus, the film TheAssault of the Present on theRest of Time is about the cinema because it presentsan abundance of thingsin fragmentedform. A seriesof actions,set in the contemporarycity or shownas historicalsuperimpo- sition,is paralleledby the narration of well-defined short movie scenes usingdoctored film clips or a frontprojection device. In thisway, the pictorialnarration moves across time. Because thereare clearchanges of timeand style,the spectatorcan easilynotice the narrative process; furthermore,this process is conveyedmusically. These imagechanges, whichcreate a bridgefrom one storyto another,are not individually accountedfor in thescript. Until such cinematographicrenderings are producedfrom the materialsthemselves, they can be describedonly withgreat difficulty. Part of the pictorialand stylisticchanges can be echoed in live-actiontakes. Therefore, as in thethree previous films, I plan to have threeindependent camera teams working in succession. Cuttingsessions will be interruptedby additionalshooting sessions.

Translatedby Tamara Evans and StuartLiebman

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:52:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RememberingNot to Forget:A Retrospective Readingof Kluge's Brutality in Stone

Eric Rentschler

In Nuremberg,an internationalconvention of circus producers takesplace. Later,Leni Peickertand a co-workergo throughthe con- ventionproceedings, reading the protocol aloud: "I would liketo see theperson who afterAuschwitz wants to tryto preventus fromsaying somethingwe thinkneeds to be said. A majorityvote: the number with therats won't be cancelled.Applause! A breakfor refreshments." Leni Peickertcontinues alone: "Nothingat all can stop us, I would like to see the personwho afterAuschwitz wants to stop us fromdoing and sayingwhat we thinkis right.Refreshments are passed around."'

Brutalityin Stone[Brutalitdt in Stein],a shortdocumentary film directed by AlexanderKluge and PeterSchamoni in 1960, representsYoung German Film's earliest sign of life.2Made two years before the

1. A scene from Kluge's Artistsunder the Big Top:Perplexed [Die Artistenin der Zirkuskuppel:ratlos, 1967], quoted fromthe script(Munich: Piper, 1968) 45. 2. BrutalityinStone (1960), 320 meters(12 minutes),35mm, black and white.Script- ed, edited,and produced by Kluge and Schamoni;cinematography by WolfWirth; music by Hans Posegga; speakingvoices include ChristianMarschall, Hans Clarin, and KarynKluge. The filmpremiered at the OberhausenFilm Festival on 8 February 1961 and receivedvarious prizes. In 1963 a slightlyrevised version with the titleThe

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:56:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 24 RememberingNot to Forget outspoken, indeed histrionicOberhausen Manifesto, it begins with a solemn declaration:

Everyedifice left to us by historyemanates the spirit of itscreator and itsage, evenwhen it no longerstands in theservice of its original function.The forsakenedifices of theNational Socialist Party, as testamentsin stone,allow memories to come aliveof that epoch whichled to the mostterrible catastrophe in Germanhistory.

I would like to scrutinize this statementfrom a double perspective. First,I wish to ponder the pre-Oberhausen settingand Young German Film's initial efforts,concentrating on a generation's evocation of the past and its confrontationwith the cultural legacy of the Third Reich, with the systematicdenigration of fantasywares to tools of domination. Using Brutalityin Stoneas a point of reference,I want to rehearse the theoreticalimpulse and historicalimpetus behind Young German Film's desire to renew West German filmin the early sixties,as well as to identifysome of Kluge's chief discursive predilections. Second, I wish to see what Brutalityin Stonetells us today about the historicalproject that constitutedYoung German Film and, in subsequent years, determined the New German Cinema. In other words, I want to discern how this critical documentary on Nazi architecture, made in 1960, appears in light of several contemporary discussions: the recent debates about historical revisionism and the place of the Third Reich within the larger course of German history;3the heated controversyabout the status of Nazi art and architecturewithin the

Eternity of Yesterday [Die Ewigkeitvon gestern]gained the designation "valuable" ("wertvoll") from the Film Rating Board in Wiesbaden. A subtitled copy of the filmis available from the Anthology Film Archives in New York. For initial responses to the film, see Walther Schmieding's notice in Weg zum Nachbarn:Protokoll der VII. West- deutschenKurzfilmtage (Oberhausen: Oberhausen Film Festival, 1961); and Enno Patalas, "Der Kurzfilm sucht die Wirklichkeit,"Filmkritik 5 (March 1961): 138. Patalas stressesthe subjective emphasis of this documentary film:"The creator confrontsreal- ityas an interpreter.He no longer remains content with recounting 'dramas of everyday events,' he himself confrontsreality." For subsequent discussions of the film,see Ulrich Gregor's account in Herzog/Kluge/Straub,eds. Peter W. Jansen and Wolfram Schtitte(Munich/Vienna: Hanser, 1976) 132; and Rainer Lewandowski, Die Filmevon AlexanderKluge (Hildesheim/New York: Olrns, 1980) 288-291. In general, Kluge's shorts remain all but unexplored. 3. For initial orientations,see Charles S. Maier, The UnmasterablePast: History,Holo- caust,and GermarwNational Identity (Cambridge/London: Harvard UP, 1988); and "Spe- cial Issue on the Historikerstreit,"New GermanCritique 44 (Spring/Summer 1988).

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:56:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Eric Rentschler 25 culturalinstitution;4 and discussionsof the role New Germanfilmmak- ers,including Alexander Kluge, have playedin revisionisttendencies in theFederal Republic since the seventies. What does BrutalityinStone tellus about thepast? More importantly,what does ittell us about the presentthat examines the past? And most crucially,what does this film,as a politicalintervention from the recentpast thataddresses a problematiccultural heritage, reveal about present-dayissues and interests?

III

1963, Nuremberg:a public screeningof Leni Riefenstahl'sThe Blue Light[Das blaueLicht] in the Meistersingerhallenis a huge success.Carl Muiller,prominent owner of the Studiofuir Filmkunst in Bremen,describesthe event: "During late Octoberin 1963 I had an overpowering experiencein Nuremberg.Hundreds couldn't get in .... Rarelyhave I seen such an enthused audience .... How often I heard people say, 'Whata film!'- Whydon't theymake filmslike thisanymore?"5

On three separate occasions in the postwar period, German filmmakersdeclared their intention to createa new Germanfilm. As earlyas 1946, Hans Abich and RolfThiele issued a "Memorandum Regardinga New GermanFilm" and establisheda studioin the Eng- lishsector of Germany,the Filmaufbau G6ttingen. They spoke of their desireto make "filmsagainst the film of NationalSocialism," to make anti-Ufaproductions that were not entertainment,but problemfilms witha constructiveresolve. Abich and Thiele soon foundthemselves

4. See Nazi-Kunstins Museum?, ed. Klaus Staeck(Gbttingen: Steidl, 1988); and the specialissue of tendenzen (Munich) devoted to "Nazikunstins Museum?," No. 157 (Jan- uary-March1987). Cf. the catalogue,Inszenierung der Macht: Asthetische Faszination im Faschismus,eds. Klaus Behnkenand FrankWagner (West Berlin: Neue Gesellschaftfiir bildendeKunst, 1987). This extensivecollection of essays accompanied an exhibitionof fascistart in the KunstquartierAckerstrasse in Berlin-Weddingduring the springof 1987. 5. Quoted in DietrichKuhlbrodt, "Leni Riefenstahlwieder offiziell," Die Zeit24 July1964.

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surroundedby membersof the old group. Indeed, theirfirst project, Love4 7 [Liebe4 7] (an adaptation of WolfgangBorchert's drama TheMan Outside[Draussen vor der Tdir]), touted as itsdirector the formerproduction head at Ufa,Wolfgang Liebeneiner.6 There would be no decisivebreak and no novel impetusduring the Adenauerera; even as late as 1957 about 70 percentof all WestGerman feature films employed either a di- rectoror a scriptwriterwho had been activeunder Goebbels.7 A second, less compromisinginitiative came more than a decade laterwith the group"DOC 59," a gatheringof documentary filmmakers, cameramen, composers,and thefilm critic Enno Patalas,who soughtcloser connec- tionswith the international art film scene. They wished to mergedocu- mentationand fiction,to commingleauthenticity and scriptednarra- tive.8Still, for all itsawareness of the dead-end state of Germanfilm culture,DOC 59 did notsucceed in revivingan aridand all-but-monolithic productionlandscape dominatedby wornoutgenre fare,mindless escapism,and paint-by-numberproduction schemes, a nationalcinema withouta distinctstylistic and criticalwill, devoid of experimentation, al- ternativestrategies, and youngervoices.9 The diresituation, recognized almostuniversally, reached its acme whenthe government awarded no stateprize for the best film of 1961,and Ufasuffered financial collapse.10 In thissetting, a thirdattempt at renewingGerman film took shape,

6. See Christian Bauer's documentary film Phonixaus derAsche: Hans Abichund der FilmaujbauGittingen, screened on WestGerman television on thefirst channel (ARD), 4 August1988. For a lengthyinterview with Abich reflecting his longcareer in German filmand television,see RainerGanser, "Hans Abich - Begegnungen,Erinnerungen und Ausblick,"epd Film 5 (September1988): 20-29. 7. For statisticsregarding the participationof filmmakersfrom the Third Reichin postwarWest German productions,see Hans-PeterKochenrath, "Kontinuitat im deutschen Film, 1966," Filmund Gesellschaftin Deutschland:Dokumente und Materialien,eds. Wilfriedvon Bredowand RolfZurek (Hamburg: Hoffman und Campe, 1975)289-290. 8. Leonhard H. Gminr,"Zur Chronik," Derjungedeutsche Film: Dokumentation zu einer Ausstellungder Constantin-Film(Munich: Constantin-Film,1967) 22. 9. For criticalassessments of the postwarfilm malaise in WestGermany, see Joe Hembus, Der deutscheFilm kanngar nichtbesser sein (Bremen: Schiinemann, 1961); and WaltherSchmieding, Kunst oder Kasse: Der Arger mit dem deutschen Film (Hamburg: Riitten& Loening,1961). Recentaccounts are less critical.See, forinstance, Manfred Barthel, So war es wirklich:Der deutscheNachkriegsfilm (West Berlin: Herbig, 1986); Gerhard Bliersbach, So griinwar die Heide:Der deutscheNachkriegsfdlm in neuer Sicht (Weinheim/Basel: Beltz, 1985); and Claudius Seidl, Derdeutsche Film derfiinfzigerJahre (Munich: Heyne, 1987). For a summaryof filmduring the Adenauer era, see Eric Rentschler,"Germany: The PastThat Would Not Go Away,"World Cinema since 1945, ed. WilliamLuhr (New York:Ungar/ Continuum,1987) 213-219. 10. Cf. Georg Ramseger,"1961: Ist der deutsche Film am Ende? Rede zur

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resultingin the oft-quoted"Oberhausen Manifesto" of February 1962 - a document lamenting the bankrupt state of German film as an art and an industry,and promising, brashlyand arrogantly,a collective's desire to "create the new German featurefilm.""1 The 26 angry young men who signed the Oberhausen Manifesto claimed to have "concrete intellectual,formal, and economic concep- tions about the production of the new German film." By and large, however, this was not the case, for the manifestoprovided a promise, but did not articulate a program.12None of the signatories(many of whom had won festivalprizes for their shorts) had yet made a feature film;the vast majorityhad backgrounds in documentaries and experimental industrialfilms. The group gained its identityabove all from a common sense of displeasure and critique, from a shared desire to combat the powers that controlled image production in Germany, from a wish to militateagainst an abuse of the medium that had con- tinued unabated since the Third Reich. Alexander Kluge, in an essay of 1962 entitled "What Do the 'Oberhauseners' Want?," reflectedon the group's central motivations,which were to:

1. freefilm from its intellectual isolation in the FederalRepublic, 2. militateagainst the dictatesof a strictlycommercial orientation operativein the filmindustry today, 3. allow forconditions which make filmaware of its public re- sponsibilityand, consequently,in keepingwith this responsibility, to seekappropriate themes: film should embrace social documentation,political questions, educational concerns, and filmicinno- vations,matters all but impossibleunder the conditions that have governedfilm production.'3

Verleihungdes DeutschenFilmpreises am 25. Juni 1961 in Berlin,"Deutscher Filmpreis 1951-80,eds. ManfredHohnstock and AlfonsBettermann (Bonn: Bundesministerdes Innern,1980) 52-58. Klaus Kreimeieranalyzes the dynamics of theWest German film economy at length in Kino und Filmindustriein der BRD: Ideologieproduktionund Klassenwirklichkeitnach1945 (Kronberg: Scriptor, 1973). For a paraphrasein English,see Thomas Elsaesser,"The PostwarGerman Cinema," Fassbinder,ed. Tony Rayns,2nd rev.ed. (London: BritishFilm Institute,1979) 1-16. Cf. Michael Dost, FlorianHopf, and AlexanderKluge, Filmwirtschaft in der BRD undin Europa:Giitterdiimmerung in Raten (Munich:Hanser, 1973). 11. Cited from WestGerman Filmmakers on Film: Visionsand Voices,ed. Eric Rentschler(New York/London:Holmes & Meier, 1988) 2. 12. Kluge acknowledgesthis in an interview.See RainerLewandowski, Die Ober- hausener:Rekonstruktion einer Gruppe 1961-1982 (Diekholzen: Regie, 1982) 86. 13. The essay originallyappeared as "Was wollendie 'Oberhausener?'" in the

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Shortlyafter the Oberhausenfestival, the group convenedto discuss theways in whichit could effectthe desired intellectual transformation of Germanfilm and establishappropriate institutional support systems.'4A firstgoal involvedfounding a publicsubsidy mechanism that would allowyoung filmmakers to fundtheir first productions without commercialconstraints. This came to fruitionin 1964 withthe estab- lishmentof the Curatoriumfor Young German Film. Second, the Oberhausenersstressed the role of independent short films as a "natural experimentalfield" and soughtto keep themalive despite exhibi- tionpractices and statelegislation that endangered the genre. Finally, thegroup called for an "intellectualcenter for film," where theory and practicemight work hand-in-hand. A laboratoryfor the new German cinema,the Institutefor Film Design in Ulm, was establishedalready in October 1962,conceived of as "a place of higherlearning directed againstfascism."15

October 1965, Oberhausen:journalists, public officials,and educa- torsgather to watch20 previouslybanned filmsfrom the Third Reich and to discusstheir possible public screening.16Later, Atlas-Film re- leases Veit Harlan's Kolbergin a newlyedited versiondesigned to defuseany sympatheticreading by means of criticalvoice-overs and contrastivemontages from wartime Germany. The FrankfurterAllge- meineZeitung calls the refurbishedKolberg "a convincingexample of howfilm can be used to unmaskand criticallyanalyze film."17 The dis- tributorHans Eckelkamp comes under firenonetheless forwhat some perceiveto be his opportunisticrevival of the "brownscreen." He responds to an interviewerfrom Der Spiegel:"I want to bring anti-Nazi

November 1962 issue of epd Kircheund Film. Cited from Rentschler, West German Filmmakers10. 14. Lewandowski, Die Oberhausener86-87. 15. Thiswas theimpulse behind the founding of the Hochschule filr Gestaltung in Ulm, a postwarextension of theBauhaus (whichoffered a projectto be continuedas well in film). See Klaus Eder and Alexander Kluge, UlmerDramaturgien: Reibungsverluste (Munich/Vienna:Hanser, 1980) 35. 16. The discussionwas documentedin Der Spielfilmim Dritten Reich, ed. Manfred Dammeyer(Oberhausen: Westdeutsche Kurzfilmtage, 1966). 17. PeterW. Jansen,"Die Wunderwaffedes JosephGoebbels: Kolberg, ein Filmund seineGeschichte zwanzigJahre danach," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 27 September1965.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:56:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Eric Rentschler 29 filmsinto the cinemas, not Nazi films.... It would be undemocraticto suppressthese films. It is democraticwhen we put themin a new contextand show themthere."'8

Structuresfrom the past as fragments,memories, testimonies; texts fromanother epoch whichspeak to thepresent and disclosethe inner- mostworkings of an age: in thisregard, the project of Brutality in Stone recallsthat of SiegfriedKracauer's From Caligari to Hitler. In thiswork, Kracauerprovides symptomatic readings of Weimarfilms as a secret historyof collectiveinner dispositions,closely analyzing, above all, prominentpictorial motifs as "visiblehieroglyphs," forms allowing access to the"unseen dynamicsof humanrelations" characteristic of the period.'9(Kracauer, we dare notforget, started out as an architectand remainedthroughout his endeavorsremarkably sensitive to structures and streetsas crucial signifiersof modernity.)Similar to Kracauer, Kluge and Schamoni refunctionalizehistorical motifs and formsso that,many years later, we mightgrasp their true function in a larger Zusammenhang.20Likewise, we finda ragpicker'szeal in siftingthrough the garbage pile of history,sorting out and recoveringdiscarded chunksof realitylest they be forgottenand disavowedby the present. Brutalityin Stonedoes not reconstructthe past, it deconstructs it, attemptingto wrestaway memories of NationalSocialism from a public conformismthat would denytheir reality and materiality.It uses architecture,both actualbuildings and planned structures,as artifactsof a collectivedream of nightmarishproportions21, combatting the forces

18. Quoted in the unsignedarticle, "NS-Filme in bundesdeutschenKinos?," epd Kircheund Film 18 (November 1965): 17. 19. SiegfriedKracauer, FromCaligari to Hitler:A PsychologicalHistory of the German Film (Princeton:Princeton UP, 1947) 7; quotingHorace M. Kallen,Art and Freedom,vol. 2 (New York,1942) 809. 20. Cf.David L. Vierling'sdiscussion of the term Zusammenhang and thechallenges it poses to the subtitlerof Kluge'sfilms in "Quinzaine:Die Patriotin,Alexander Kluge: 'A Question of Zusammenhang...,"' Kino: GermanFilm 2 (West Berlin, Spring 1980): "For withinthis single German word lie themajor thematic and formalconcerns of The Patriot. In short,the term Zusammenhang is a mysteryworth exploring. What, then, does itmean? Zusammen:together. Hdingen: to adhere,to cling;to stick.Zusammenhang: thestate of fitting together;context, association; continuity" (22). 21. Cf. the formulationfrom Walter Benjamin's Das Passagenwerk,quoted in

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:56:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 30 RememberingNot to Forget that seek to suppress or, even more problematically,to mythologize recollection of the Third Reich. In this way, the film's resolve recalls Walter Benjamin's "Theses on the Philosophy of History," especially in its disdain forthose who would treatfascism as an inevitabledestiny vanquished by time ratherthan as a state of emergency still affecting the present.22 In a lecture of 1959 titled "What Does Coming to Terms with the Past Mean?," Theodor W. Adorno confrontspredispositions in the Adenauer era which seek to forgetrather than to rethinkthe past, to deny collective responsibilityfor World War II and the Holocaust, to relativize the significance (indeed even the existence) of the death camps, to bicker over exact statistics(five, not six million Jewishdead in the concentrationcamps), and to effacememory in a manner more conscious than unconscious. The result of these predispositions, Adorno claims, is a mode of mass repression, which at best pays lip service to a national project of coming to grips withthe past (Vergangen- heitsbewdiltigung)through public demonstrations of philo-Semitism, screenings of The Diary of Anne Frank,and half-heartedreeducation programs - none of which ask difficultquestions and pursue equally probing answers. For Adorno, the past needs to be worked through (aufgearbeitet),to be reshaped into something new. The term "Aufar- beitung" blends psychoanalyticrelentlessness and enlightenedresolve; only in this way could the German subject ever regain its lost maturity and reconstitutenational identity.23 West German filmsof the 1950s presentfew examples of criticalsen- timent,of a desire to comprehend the experience of the Third Reich. Paradigmaticinstances on celluloid of such coming to grips with the past are Helmut Kautner's TheDevil's General [Des TeufelsGeneral, 1954], Kurt Hoffman's Aren'tWe Wonderful?[Wir Wunderkinder,1958], and Bernhard Wicki's The Bridge[Die Briicke,1959]. With their humanistic rhetoric,the filmsconsole ratherthan interrogate,focusing on victims of circumstance(ajovial Luftwaffegeneral, a well-meaningBildungsbiirger,

Bestandsaufnahme:Utopie Film, ed. Alexander Kluge (Frankfurtam Main: Zweitausend- eins, 1983): "Even technology,and not only architecture,is in certain manifestations the embodiment of a collective dream" (426). 22. Cf. Walter Benjamin, Illuminations,trans. Harry Zohn, ed. Hannah Arendt (New York: Schocken, 1969) 257. 23. Theodor W. Adorno, "What Does Coming to Temns with the Past Mean?," trans. Timothy Bahti and GeoffreyHartman, Bitburgin Moral and PoliticalPerspective, ed. GeoffreyHartman (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986) 115.

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a groupof young boys drafted into the army at thewar's end), innocent sufferersheld captiveby situationsthey neither control nor fathom. These narrativesdisplay finished worlds and inexorabledestinies; Na- tionalSocialism is equated withunceasing fear and misery(especially forthe average German citizen), the war recast either as a primalscene thatwreaks violence on theunwitting, or as a negativefamily romance thatrenders everyone an orphanof history.Film thus serves to repress thepast and displaceguilt, to obfuscatethe undeniable; in theprocess, the real victimsare cheatedout of theirremembrance.24 A numberof difficultquestions faced the Young German filmmakers: how to combat repressionof thepast with a mediumso vehementlyimplicated in fos- teringpublic pacification? How to changethe status quo withan appa- ratuslargely controlled by forces that liked things as theywere, a world of reconstruction,economic miracle, and no experiments?25How to counterimages of a pastwhose own imagesand imaginarydominated attemptsto imagineand image thatpast?

VII

A keypoint of consensus among the Oberhausen group remained its preferencefor a mode of productionin whichthe authormaintains a highdegree of controlover the creativeendeavor, circumventing outside pressures.Through effective lobbying, Kluge and his colleagues managedto set in motionpublic subsidysystems that would fundde- but filmsand pose onlyminimal resistance, as long as filmmakerslim- ited themselvesto modest formats.26Clearly, though, there was a marked differencebetween the GermanAutorenfilm and the French politiquedes auteurs. As Klugewould laterpoint out, the fact that certain filmmakerscraft personal works is one thing;that certain circles of

24. What is at issue is the destructionof memory:"The murderedare to be cheatedout of the one thingthat our powerlessnesscan grantthem: remembrance" (Adorno 117). 25. Cf. Wolfgang Staudte's observations, cited in Katrin Seybold's essay "... Die Weltverbessern mit dem Geld von Leuten,die die Weltin Ordnungfinden," Wolfgang Staudte,ed. Eva Orbanz, 3rd rev.ed. (WestBerlin: Spiess, 1977) 30-57. 26. See Die erstendreiJahre, ed. NorbertKiuckelmann (Munich: Kuratorium Junger DeutscherFilm, 1968). Cf. SheilaJohnston'saccount, "The Authoras Public Institu- tion:The 'New' Cinema in the FederalRepublic of Germany,"Screen Education 32/33 (Autumn-Winter1979/80): 67-78.

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filmmakersjoin togetherand embracecommon goals regardingfilm politicsis quite another.Film innovators protest for different reasons at differenttimes, and even among peers the reasons will vary. Godard's initialprotest, according to Kluge,was directedagainst cul- turein generaland againstthe power of languagein culture.Truffaut at bestprotested the misuse of languageand education,and eschewed the pervertingpotential of culture.The membersof thenouvelle vague, nonetheless,joined in a protestagainst a "cinema of quality"and in the desire to combat a moribundcultural atmosphere.27 The Ober- hausen group consciouslyshaped itselfaccording to thisimpulse; for all its diversepersonalities and factions,it commonlyprotested - at least initially- againstfilm in the serviceof the stateand the status quo, againsta cinema that meant a cult of distraction,an institu- tionalizationof amnesia,valium forthe masses,an officialstrangle- hold over fantasylife. BrutalityinStone stages a rebellionon celluloid;its very form subverts a genrethat flourished in theThird Reich: the Kulturfilm (the short "without a plot"that accompanied every feature film). One cannot,in fact,un- derstandNazi cinemain termsof singlefilms. Newsreels, shorts, and featuresshared the labor.As HartmutBitomsky notes: "The main fea- turesmight have shownrevues and romances,the culturefilms took overresponsibility for matters of Weltanschauung."28From the beginning of Young GermanFilm, the shortfilm functioned as an experimental site.Edgar Reitz's first effort, for instance, explored the war ruins of an opera house in Munich (Fateof an OperaHouse [Schicksaleiner Oper, 1957]).29 The shortfilm format would continue in theindividual contributions of directorsto omnibus filmslike Germanyin Autumn[Deutschland im Herbst,1978], The Candidate[Der Kandidat,1980], and War and Peace [Kriegund Frieden, 1983], finding a latter-dayextension in Kluge'stelevi- sion spots forThe Hour of the Filmmakers [Die Stundeder Filmemacher]. Kiuge's firstfilm would be a short,an anti-Kulturlfmas a sortof anti-culture,an act of subversion,analysis, and revenge.

27. "Autorenfilm/Politikder Autoren," in Kluge,Bestandsaufnahme 576-581. 28. HartmutBitomsky, "Der Kotfliigeleines Mercedes-Benz:Nazikulturfilme," Filmkritik27 (October 1983): 445. 29. Cf.Edgar Reitz's comment: "We wereparticularly interested in a sortof anti-ar- chitecturewhich had arisen.We were inspiredby the operaticbeauty of the ruins" (Lewandowski, Die Oberhausener136).

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VIII

"All documentaryfilms that are authentic,"Kluge said in 1983, "document reality;all radical filmexperiments work at heart in a documentaryfashion."30 Brutality in Stonecombines the importantand inextricablybound impetusesin Kluge's theoryand praxis of film: documentation,authenticity, and experimentation.As documentation,it confrontsvoices and artifactsfrom the past with a retrospectiverevolt, seekingto representhistorical reality as the fictionthat it indeed is, pressinginto service Hitler's claim that every great period "finds the final expressionof its values in itsbuildings."3" In a mannerredolent of Alain Resnais'sNight and Fog [Nuitet Brouillard,1955]32, thefilm revisits an infamoussite of past barbarism:the NurembergParty Congress grounds. This set for Riefenstahl'sTriumph of the Will [Triumphdes Willens,1935] is in itspresent countenance no longerthe scene of frenzied spectacle,with massed ornamentalgroups of euphoricbystand- ers,but rathera forsaken,vacant, seemingly lost space. The camera,in shortfragments (the 12-minutefilm contains over 200 singleshots), providesstills of modernizedneoclassicistic structures, registering se- vereangles, sharp planes, and an abidingpenchant for the monumen- tal and gigantic- edificescast, in Barbara Miller Lane's words,as "symbols of the 'heroic scale of life' . . . intended to reflectthe power of the dictatorand his modernstate over his subjectsin the mass."33 Architecture,Walter Benjamin once observed,"has neverbeen idle."34 Nor is the cameraidle here in itsattention to aestheticdesigns with a geometryof inhumanproportions. We see the space and structureof the massiveZeppelinfeld; stills of Hider at workon the empire'sfuture capital,Germania, as wellas simulationsof that metropolis; sketches of otherfuture edifices; models of utopian expanses; and the skeleton remnantsof an unfinishedbuilding, the constructionsite of Albert

30. Kluge, Bestandsaufnahme536. 31. Quoted in Barbara Miller Lane, Architectureand Politicsin Germany1918-1945 (Cambridge/London:Harvard UP, 1968) 188. For a recentstudy of Nazi architecture, see DieterBartetzko, Illusionen in Stein(Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt,1985). 32. For an extended analysis of Nightand Fog,see Ilan Avisar, Screeningthe Holocaust: Cinema'sImages of the Unimaginable (Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1988) 6-18. 33. Lane 215. 34. WalterBenjamin, "The Workof Art in theAge ofMechanical Reproduction," Illuminations240.

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Speer's ConventionHall. Documentation,in Kluge's understanding, alwaystakes sides and neverallows itself to be objectiveor balanced.35It displaysa heterogeneityof materials,multiple temporalities, and shift- ingfields of discourse.As a document,Brutality in Stone scrutinizes his- toricalartifacts that created imaginary effects, facts based on fictions. The filmthus reflects how theimaginary became real and seeksat the same timeto fathomthe construction of meaning by a stateapparatus. The quest forauthenticity, claims Kluge, aims to activatethose forces thatenliven the spectator, that engage, challenge and, on occasion,irri- tateaudiences. The authentictext is a communicativeone, at once sober, concrete,and precise,but also nomadic,willful, and extreme.36 Brutalityin Stoneconstitutes an eccentricwork of archaeology - an ex- humationin thevein of Gabi Teichert,the radical pedagogue in ThePa- triot[Die Patriotin,1979]. The guidingenergy here ferretsout Zusam- menhang,analyzing the relationshipof parts to wholes, of building blocksto entirestructures, of shapes/forms/surfacesto overall Gestalten, of spectatorsto historicalspectacles. No doubt,the voice we hearin BrutalityinStone lacks the subtlety and nuanceof the capriciousenunciators in otherKluge films, be theythe inexorable elephants in Artistsunder the Big Top:Perplexed or the talking kneein ThePatriot. The soberdeclarations possess no ludicelan; rather, they are terse, stark,straightforward. An unreconciledintelligence guidesthis tour through a visualand aural museumof memories.We hear authenticvoices: Hitler on various occasions, exultantHitler Youthchoirs, radio announcers,and cheeringcrowds from Triumph of theWill. We also partakeof quotations:a gruesomeverse from a Bund deutscherMddel songbook, for instance; and a horrificpassage from Ru- dolfHiss's memoirs,in whichthe commander of Auschwitz describes theprocessing of humanmaterial in the camps,the factory-line exter- minationof deported Jews. The authenticconcern of Brutality inStone is withthe past,with the imagesand self-imagesof thatpast and their unacknowledgedplace in presentdiscourse. A similarconcern informs Straub and Huillet's contemporaneousshort, Machorka-Muff (1962).

35. Kluge,"Thesen II," Bestandsaufnahme535-36. Cf. thediscussion "Probleme des Dokumentarfilms,"in Eder and Kluge,Ulmer Dramaturgien 51-56. 36. Kluge,Bestandsaufnahme 213-16, especially 214. Authenticitymeans attentive- nessin themidst of distraction, a relaxed, yet critical relationship between spectator and film,which is mirroredin theauthentic text's open mode of address.A filmthat seeks to destroythe autonomy of the spectator, argues Kluge, "also destroysitself." In Kluge's language,the authentictext is both objective("sachlich") and biased ("unsachlich").

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At thecenter of thisfilm we finda generaldedicating an Academyfor MilitaryMemories in Bonn ofthe Adenauer era, a place wherewar vet- erans findgovernment support for theirrevisionist enterprises. We witnessthe cornerstonebeing laid forthe edifice and theaccompany- ing ceremony,which strikinglydramatizes state investmentin the stylizationand reconstructionof memory."7Brutality in Stoneprovides somethingsimilar, but it is more like a deconstructedmuseum of memories,gathering fragments and shards,collecting, evoking, and refunctionalizingso thatwe mightbetter grasp the workings of the his- toricallyreal, whose operations continue in thepresent and are,in that waytoo, authentic. In an age of "no experiments,"Brutality in Stonemerges experimentation, intervention,and reinterpretationin an undertakingdriven by an inexo- rablewill not to forget.It contrasts,at timesrather brazenly, aural and visualsignifiers, juxtaposing the cities of thefuture with the resounding bombsof allied air raids, confronting barren parade grounds with the ju- bilantsounds of Nurembergin 1934.The film'sdominant strategies in- volvecontrast, counterpoint, and parody.Its schematicand patterned editingrhythms underline and overstatethe object of investigation, formingagain the alreadyhyperformed, exaggerating the regularityof spaces,shapes, and surfaces.The structuresof the past are recycledand worked over (umfunktioniertand aufgearbeitet),ceasing to serve theirorigi- nal functionin twoways: they are at once no longerin use, but indeed areput to use in thisfilm in anothercontext - in thehistorical project of Young GermanFilm and itsattempts to renewGerman film history. Ifrealism has a motive,asserts Kluge, it "is nevera confirmationof reality,but rathera protest."38The protestfueling this experiment blends radicalimitation with a frontalattack, employing an aggressivemontage thatestablishes relationships between the seemingly unrelated. The camera movessolemnly in forwardprocessions down expansive corridors as H6ss describesthe calmness of prisoners entering gas chambers,a com- binationthat associates neoclassicistic promenades with Prussian thor- oughnessand thuslinks the shapes of edifices and thesubstance of politicalactions as emanationsof the same ideologicalinstrumentation. The opening shot literalizesthe dialecticof enlightenmentand the

37. See Eric Rentschler,"The Use and Abuse of Memory:New GermanFilm and the Discourseof Bitburg,"New German Critique 36 (Fall 1985): 73-76. 38. Alexander Kluge, Gelegenheitsarbeiteiner Sklavin: Zur realistischenMethode (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp,1975) 216.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:56:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 36 RememberingNot to Forget antagonisticconstruction of NationalSocialism: we see a lake and a naturallandscape behind it, over which then the vast facade of a build- ingis superimposed,covering the trees and fields.Nature succumbs to monumentalmadness, to the same instrumentalwill that shrouds it- selfin premoderngarb, propagating blood and soil fustianwhile transformingthe worldwith the tools of modernity.39Kluge's firstexperi- mentoffers an exercisein criticalart history and outspokenarchaeolo- gy,insisting that certain structures still bear on the present.The sub- titleof Brutality inStone, "The Eternityof Yesterday" ["Die Ewigkeitvon gestern"],later replaces the originaltitle and findsan ironicecho in Kluge's debut featureof 1966, Abschiedvon gestern.

Kluge will endureas the most prominentpublic defenderof West Germanfilm, an individualwhose stress on thepower of cinemato redeem historicalreality and to givevoice to alternativeenergies continues to guide his worktoday - a cinemaof Eigensinnindeed." And Peter Schamoni?He gainedsome attentionfor his feature debut, Closed Season on FoxHunting [Schonzeitfiir Fiichse, 1966], a studyof a young generation's passiveaggression towards smug and unrepentantelders.41 Two decades later,after commercial ventures in variousgeneric veins, he now makes feature-lengthKulturfilme like SpringSymphony [Friihlingssinfonie, 1982] and CasparDavid Friedrich (1986), bio-pictures about romanticartists that are all but indistinguishablefrom the former confections of OpasKino.42

39. Cf. ReactionaryModernism: and Politicsin Weimarand JeffreyHerf, Technology,Culture, theThird Reich (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984). 40. For useful and dynamic appreciations of Kluge's project in its multiple directions,see Miriam Hansen's various essays,including: "Collaborative Auteur Cinema and Oppositional Public Sphere: Germanyin Autumn,"New GermanCritique 24-25 (Fall/Winter 1981-82): 35-56; "Alexander Kluge, Cinema and the Public Sphere: The Construction Site of Counter-History,"Discourse 6 (Fall 1985): 53-74; "Alexander Kluge: Crossings between Film, Literature,Critical Theory," Film und Literatur:Literarische Texte und der neue deutscheFilm, eds. Sigrid Bauschinger et al. (Berne/Munich:Francke, 1984) 169-196; and "The Stubborn Discourse: Historyand Story-Tellingin the Films of Alexander Kluge," Persistenceof Vision2 (1985): 19-29. See also the special issue of Octoberdevoted to Kluge, ed. Stuart Liebman, No. 46 (Fall 1988). 41. The scriptwas published in the journal Film 4 (Velber,June 1966): 45-56. The film is available in a subtitledversion throughWest Glen Films in New York. 42. Cf. the summaryaccount of SpringSymphony from the program of "New German Films" presented at the 1984 Berlin Film Festival: "The love storyof Clara Wieck and

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1986,Cologne: the wealthy industrialist and influentialpatron of the arts,Peter Ludwig, complains in a seriesof public pronouncements about the narrowperspective (Blickverengung) thatrefuses to grantGer- man artand sculpturefrom 1933 to 1945a place in publicinstitutions.43 (He does notuse thephrase "Nazi art.")People havea right,he claims, to judge forthemselves whether these works are barbaric.In any case, theoperative tabus should be liftedand audiencesgranted a chanceto see whethera distanceof 40 yearsmight allow new approachesto the previouslycensured. The same personwho purchasedPop Arttwo decades ago and had his portraitdone byAndy Warhol now commissions the once-prominentNazi artistArno Brekerto make bustsof himself and his wife.It is a signof thetimes, submits Ludwig: "Postmodern - whatdoes thatmean otherthan being traditional?"44

The initialimpetus behind Young GermanFilm was a negativeproj- ect,a criticalenterprise, a taking of revenge.The anti-Kulturfilmand the subsequentnew Germanfeature film meant explicitly to recycleimages fromthe past; to confrontthe facts, structures, and discourseof National Socialism;and to militateagainst collective forgetting. Ifwe jump ahead to thelate 1970sand early1980s, when New GermanFilm had gained stature,self-assurance, and wide recognition,we glimpsea cinemain- vestedin recreatingnational identity - a missionessentialized in Gabi Teichert'squest for a positiveGerman history. As theartist Christo put it: "In theseventies, the Germanssuddenly began to reinventNational Socialism.The Hitlerperiod became an extraordinarycreative resource

RobertSchumann, but also the love-hatestory of Schumannand FriedrichWieck, Clara'sfather, whose bond withhis daughterlies beyond mere paternal love: in manag- ingher career he seekshis own artistic self-fulfillment." The filmstarred Nastassja Kinski, RolfHoppe, and HerbertGr6nemeyer. Cf. GertrudKoch's devastating review of Caspar DavidFriedrich in epd Film 3 (December1986): "Schamonimakes a politicalconnection betweenthe artist's biography and theresistance against Napoleonic occupation troops: in theconfused context of the film this amounts ultimately to a morepernicious form of Germanchauvinism" (37). 43. Froman interviewwith Der Spiegel, reprinted in Staeck14. 44. -Staeck15.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:56:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 38 RememberingNot to Forget fora whole generationof filmmakersand writers."45When we look today, fromthe perspectiveof the currenthistorians' debate, at the most celebrated New German Cinema revisitationsof the Third Reich, we findmore than passing traces of revisionistdiscourse in representative films like Hans Jiirgen Syberberg's Our Hitler[Hitler - ein Film aus Deutschland,1977], Helma Sanders-Brahms's Germany,Pale Mother [Deutschland,bleiche Mutter, 1979], Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Lili Marleen(1980), and Edgar Reitz's Heimat (1984). These films rewrite historyfrom the perspectiveof the present;one mightspeak of them as retro-scenarios,transforming history into myth,or as restagedversions of the past that exorcize the shock of that experience and thus soothe the present." Three characteristicsstand out: (1) the fixationon Ger- many as a nation of victimsand martyrs,and an attendantidentifica- tion with innocent and impotent bystandersthat undercuts the Holo- caust and Jewish suffering;(2) the figurationof German historyas woman: as an allegoryof mourning (OurHitler), as the centralpresence and source of continuity(Heimat), as a voice pressed into public service (Lili Marleen),or as a victim of rape (Germany,Pale Mother)- a strategy that representsthe nation as a violated or vulnerable female body, a stand-inand medium for a hapless Germany; and (3) the reflectionon the Nazi past as an unwittingreflection of thatpast, a functionof what Saul Friedlander has called a "New Discourse" about National Social- ism, which replaces guilt with fascination,shame with shamelessness, awareness of wrongdoing with a (however unintentional) complicity with criminals.47 Unlike Edgar Reitz, Kluge clearlydoes not wish to rewriteGerman historyin a master narrativethat integratesthe Third Reich into a wider course in time, relativizingits singularity,denying its special status, and resentingthose who insist on its exceptional significance.48 Kluge's firstshort uncompromisinglyconfronts incontrovertible facts and places them withinlarger structures.H *ss speaks candidly of the death camps and theiroperations, leaving no doubt about questions of

45. Christo, "Wrapping Up Germany," semiotexte11 (1982): 20. 46. Cf. Bruno Fischli, "Rekonstruktion, Retro-Scenario, Trauerarbeit, Aufarbeitung- oder was? Neue Filme uiber den alten Faschismus," JahrbuchFilm 79/ 80, ed. Hans Giinther Pflaum (Munich/Vienna: Hanser, 1979) 63-75. 47. Saul Friedlinder, ReflectionsofNazism: An Essayon Kitschand Death,trans. Thom- as Weyr (New York: Harper, 1984) 11-12. 48. Cf. Reitz's essay "The Camera Is Not a Clock," in Rentschler, WestGerman Filmmakers139f.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:56:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Eric Rentschler 39 agencyin the Holocaust.Brutality in Stoneintervenes, activating crucial memories.To be sure,these desires inhere in ThePatriot; at times,however,a curious shiftof emphasisdemonstrates how even Kluge, the most vigorousagent of historicalmemory, cannot fully free himself froma revisionistclimate. The Patriot mourns and recollects"all of the Reich'sdead," 49giving them a voice,stressing that they are not simply dead, butindeed full of protest and energy.The film'smost persuasive spokesmanis the talkingknee of CorporalWieland, a soldier"who wantedto live,but foundhimself in thewrong history," perishing in thebattle of Stalingrad.At one pointthe viewer is explicitlyreminded thatthe Royal Air Force burned 60,000 people in the bombingsof Hamburgduring World War 11.50We also glimpseAmerican aviators takinga cigarettebreak after "dismantling Germany systematically for eighteenhours." If we rememberthe dead and recallthe monstrous, we standbefore a Germanhistory conspicuously unburdened of cer- tainvictims and certainremembrances. This is clearfrom the startof ThePatriot, in its openingquotation from Curtis Bernhardt's The Last Company[Die letzteKompanie, 1930]. We see a drawn-out travelingshot over dead Germansoldiers, accompanied by the music Hanns Eisler composedfor Night and Fog. The scriptdescribes the scene: "This takes place eitherin theSeven Years' War or theWars of Liberation, but now we see an anti-aircraftgun from1943.'"51 The strategyis a troubling one; like Reagan's visitto Bitburg,it collapsesJewish concentration camp victimsand Germanwar dead intoone, implyingtheir common status.This is all the more disturbingin a filmthat makes no further mentionof the Holocaust, that withholds even a singleimage ofJewish sufferingin a prolongedwork of mourning, suggesting that we can talk of WorldWar II withoutmentioning Auschwitz. In an odd way,The Patriotconforms to an approachdescribed by Friedlander,wherein an "endless streamof wordsand imagesbecomes an evermore effective screenhiding the past...."52

49. Kluge,in voice-over,introduces his heroinewith these words: "Gabi Teichert, historyteacher in Hesse, a patriot,i.e., she is interestedin all of the Reich's dead." 50. Klugeuses theabbreviation "RAF," morelikely to connotethe Red ArmyFac- tion(i.e., the Baader-Meinhof group) in contemporaryminds. In thisway, he playswith the notionthat the attackson Hamburgduring World War II wereacts of terrorism. 51. TheLast Company,in fact,takes place duringthe Wars of Liberationagainst Napoleon. 52. AlexanderKluge, Die Patriotin:Texte/Bilder 1-6(Frankfurt am Main: Zweitausen- deins, 1979) 51.

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XII

In his Bestandsaufnahme[Taking Stock, 1983], Kluge quotes withoutcit- ing a sourcethe followingphrase: "The real becomesimaginary, and forthat reason the imaginary is real."53This characterizeslife in theage ofelectronic reproduction as wellas recentappropriations of the past in Germandiscourse, retro-scenarios that transform history into the spec- tacleof myth,into fictions that take on thecharacter of pseudo-fact.54 To thisday, Kluge remains inordinately sensitive to thoseelements in contemporarysociety which undermine historical memory and seekto perpetuatea constantstate of diversion, a voraciouspresent that engulfs and nullifiesthe past. These forcescontrol fantasy production, deter- minethe shape ofcities, and dominatepostmodernity in general,creatinga situationin whichthe present forecloses future horizons and cuts offthe past - or at leasttries to. Forall ofthis, Kluge maintains (playing on a phraseby ChristaWolf that he reworksin ThePatriot) that "[t]he pastisn't dead, itisn't even past.""" 55We dare notmisunderstand certain of Kluge'sinsights as Baudrillardianrevelations. Kluge does not share the latter'svehement pessimism nor his loss of faithin the resilient powersof the subject.56(Kluge's and Baudrillard'squite differentre- sponses to Mogadishuand Stammheimprovide, I would suggestin passing,a tellingcontrast: compare Germany inAutumn to "Our Theater of Cruelty.""57)Kluge stillbelieves in theproject of modernity,even in the face of postmodernrealities. He both mourns and proteststhe vitiationof certainforms of experience:the shattering of memory,the denigrationof the past, the destructionof livingspaces and public spheres,the declineof the cinema,the stiflingof human imagination

53. Kluge, Bestandsaufnahme473. 54. Cf. Anton Kaes, Deutschlandbilder:Die Wiederkehrder Geschichteals Film (Munich: edition text + kritik,1987). 55. Alexander Kluge, Der AngriffderGegenwart auf die iibrigeZeit (Frankfurtam Main: Syndikat,1985) 107. 56. Cf. Baudrillard's characterizationof a naive mode of "technological optimism" regarding the media and their progressive potential in "The Mass: The Implosion of the Social in the Media," SelectedWritings, ed. Mark Poster (Stanford:Stanford UP, 1988) 207. For dialectical optimists,claims Baudrillard, "the media constitutea new, gigantic productive forceand obey the dialectic of productive forces.Momentarily alienated and submitted to the law of capitalism, theirintensive development can only eventuallyex- plode this monopoly." 57. See Baudrillard, In theShadow of the Silent Majorities ... orthe End ofthe Social, trans. Paul Foss et al. (New York: semiotexte, 1983) 111-23.

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by the new media.58 Kluge, for all his keen awareness of "fatal strategies," refusesto succumb to fatalismand instead continues to articulate and practice strategiesof resistance.

XIII

Cinema as a time machine: images out of time vs. moments lost in time, films from the past against the power of the ever-present.59A quote from the scriptThe Assault of the Present on theRest of Time:

PEOPLE ON MONDAY.Reference to the filmPeople on Sunday.A Sundayscene from the film Kuhle Wampe. Now itis fall1984, 5 a.m. The timenears when the first waves of people willrush off to work. It is theday on whichwe go offdaylight-savings time and resetour watches(that actually happened already in thenight from Saturday to Sunday,but most people didn'tnotice it untilMonday morning).The main thingis to forgetwhat happened yesterday.60

For Kluge, it is clear: the main thingis to combat blithetakings of leave from yesterday,to remember not to forget.

58. See AlexanderKluge, "Theses about the New Media," in Rentschler,West Ger- manFilmmakers 30-32. 59. See GaryIndiana's interviewwith Kluge, "The DemolitionArtist," Village Voice 33 (25 October 1988),in whichKluge speaks of treatingcinema "as a time-producing animal.I thinkthis is themeaning of filmhistory. Commercial cinema absorbs time - likein Hitchcock.Suspense takes time away: if a bomb is tickingunder this table, it's notinteresting what we say,or howwe feel.It's killingtime. I thinkto producetime is a veryhigh ideal of all the arts"(67). 60. Kluge,Angriffder Gegenwart 41-42.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:56:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TheCommerce of Auteurism: a Voicewithout Authority

TimothyCorrigan

Subjectivityis greater than someone's intentions. --AlexanderKluge

AlexanderKluge is a grudgingauteur, a reluctantpersonality who seems to engageany and all historicalissues more thanthe historyof himself:since Oberhausen, he has been one offilm's most famous in- ternationalsignatures yet has acceptedthat label onlywith great hesi- tationand carefulqualification. To locateKluge within this troubled category of auteurhas alwaysre- quiredrevision, but as Klugehas evolvedthrough the contemporary in- ternationalfilm industry, placing Kluge the auteur has meantincreasing- ly complicatingthat position to fitthe shifting grounds of postmodern culture.Commentators within modem Germancinema have notedhis originaltrouble with and redefinitionsof auteurism.As MiriamHansen and Eric Rentschlerhave argued,one of the mostimportant collective gesturesof contemporary German cinema may has been to resituatethe verynotion of the auteur. Rentschler has shownthat Kluge has beenpart of an effortto enacta varietyof culturalsubjectivities in whichdifferent enunciatoryrelations with history have decenteredthe conventionsof auteurism.Hansen notes that for the New GermanCinema "the empha- siswas necessarilymore on a 'politiquedes auteurs,'the political struggle forindependent film-making in a countrywhich did not have a film culturecomparable to thatof France,"this new directioncalling for a "revisionof Autorenkino through a collectivepolitics of production."'

1. Eric Rentschler,West German Film in theCourse of Time(Bedford Hills, NY: 43

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Accurateas these assessmentsare, theyshould be supplementedby suggestinganother way in whichKluge has mobilizedauteurism as a criticalcategory: namely, with Kluge one findsless a criticalsubversion of auteurismas a productionstrategy than a criticalexploitation of auteurismas a categoryfor reception. Indeed, themarked shift within auteurismas a way of viewingand receivingmovies, rather than as a mode of production,has been the centralchange in the meaningof auteurismfrom the sixtiesto the eighties.It is along theselines that Klugehas begunto make specificuse ofthe commerce of his own sin- gularityand subjectivity. Manyof the relevantterms in thisrevised stance - fragmentation, diversification,multiplication - are not new to studiesof Kluge.But I willenlist them here as partof a specificcommercial strategy which I findin Kluge,one in whicha politicsof agencytakes its place as much in an extra-textualas in a textualbusiness, more exactlyas a"semi- textual"practice where Kluge admitsto performinghimself as an image of the writer/producer/filmmakerbut primarily as a strategyfor elicitingcertain relations with his audience.In a crucialsense, Kluge's writingof a selfin today'snational/international film industry situates it- selfbetween the more social and politicalwork surrounding the films (hisinvolvements with government policies or televisionnetworks) and thereception of his film practice (whose material textuality refuses to be the authorityfor its reading). As an extensionof his earlyattempts to dismantlethe aura ofauteurism as expression,Kluge's more recent en- gagementswith the practice of auteurism have been to use itas a textual materialin its own right,a textualmaterial through which he can act out and dispersethe specificproblematic of an authoritativeagency.

TheMultiple Children of Truffaut As a heuristiccategory, theories and practicesof auteurism have never reallybeen untroubled.Its spreadfrom France in thefifties through Americaand elsewherein thesixties and seventieswas tightlybound to changesin productionand distributionstrategies, such as therise of an internationalart cinema and the introductionof an Arriflexcamera. While these changes in productiontechnique frequently presented

Redgrave, 1984) 89-101 and 158-61; Miriam Hansen, "Cooperative Auteur Cinema and Oppositional Public Sphere: Alexander Kluge's Contribution to Germanyin Au- tumn,"New GermanCritique 24-25 (Fall/Winter1981-2). See also Thomas Elsaesser, New GermanCinema: A History (New Brunswick: Rutgers U. Press, 1989).

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:59:47 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TimothyCorrigan 45 auteurismas a more accurateway to cut throughthe complications of mass entertainmentand to locate the expressivecore of the filmart, theyalso offered,less visibly,a more historicallyappropriate method for negotiatingthe receptionof films.The historicaladaptability of auteurism,back throughthe works of earlyfilmmakers like Von Stro- heimand Eisensteinand throughto thepresent generation of Spielberg and Cimino,identifies mainly the desire and demandof an industryto generatean artistic(and specificallyRomantic) aura duringa period whenthe industryas such needed to distinguishitself from other, less elevated,forms of mass media (mostnotably, television). Auteurism offered not just new audiences, retrievedfrom the modernistart communities,but new culturalsanctions to old audiences,alienated and awashin an indistinguishablespate of media images. Despite its often overstatedcounter-cultural pretentions, auteurism became a deft movein establishinga model thatwould dominateand stabilizecritical receptionfor at leastthirty years. The subsequentauteurist marketing of movies,such as BernardoBertolucci's 1900, David Lean's Ryan'sDaugh- ter,or Michael Cimino'sHeaven's Gate guaranteed, through the rever- berationsof directorial names across titles, a relationshipbetween audience and moviewhereby an intentionaland authorialagency governs, as a kindof brand-name vision whose contextual meanings are already determined,the way a movieis seen and received.2 Indeed, one of the chiefmystifications within early theories and practicesof auteurismhas been a valorizationof one or anotheridea of expression,mostly disconnected from its marketingand commercial implications.Despite their large differences, theories and practices of auteurismfrom Astruc and PeterWollen to Foucaultand Stephen Heath,from John Ford toJean Luc Godard,share basic assumptions about theauteur as thestructuring principle of enunciation, an organizing expressionof one sort or another.3Whether one locates that auteurialpresence as a sourcefor stylistic or othertextual consistencies and variationsor as a figurativeauthority supplanting a lostor "dead"

2. A collectionof the major documents and debatesabout auteurismcan be found in TheoriesofAuthorshiP: A Reader, ed. JohnCaughie (London: Routledge& Kegan Paul, 1981). See also RobertSklar, Movie-Made America: A CulturalHistory of American Movies (New York:Vintage, 1975) 292-4. 3. PeterWollen, Signs and Meaningin theCinema (Bloomington: Indiana U. Press, 1972); Michel Foucault,"What Is an Author?",in Language,Counter-Memory, Practice (Ithaca: CornellU. Press,1977) 113-138;Stephen Heath,"Comment on 'The Idea of Authorship',"Screen 14.3 (Autumn1973): 86-91.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:59:47 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 46 TheCommerce ofAuteurism source (as Barthes would say) in the formof a textual enunciation, the place of the auteur withina textual causalitydescribes a way of organizing spectatorialpositions in a transcendentor trans-subjectivefash- ion.4 To view a filmas the product of an auteur means to read or to respond to it as an expressiveorganization thatprecedes and supersedes the historicalfragmentations and subjective distortionsthat can take over the reception of even the most classicallycoded movie. The often strained attemptsto make consistentor evolutionarythe Britishand American movies of Hitchcock or the German and Hollywood filmsof FritzLang are governed by some sense of a historicallytrans-subjective and transcendentcategory which authorizes certainreadings or under- standings of those movies. In David Bordwell's analysis of auteurism as an interpretativecue,

theovert self-consciousness of thenarration is oftenparalleled by an extratextualemphasis on the filmmakeras source.Within the art cinema's mode of productionand reception,the conceptof the authorhas a formalfunction it did not possess in the Holly- wood studiosystem. Film journalism and criticismpromote authors,as do filmfestivals, retrospectives, and academicfilm study. Directors'statements of intentguide comprehensionof the film, whilea body ofwork linked by an authorialsignature encourages viewersto read each filmas a chapterof an oeuvre.[ .. .] More broadly,the authorbecomes the real-worldparallel to the narra- tionalpresence 'who' communicates(what is the filmmakersay- ing?)and 'who' expresses(what is the author'spersonal vision?).5

Formalist and cognitive critiques of auteurism, such as Bordwell's, can vanquish most of the mythsof expressivityin the cinema in favor of more formal and heuristicuses for the auteur. Yet these too do not fullyattend to the survival- and, in fact,increasing importance - of the auteur as a commercial strategyfor organizing audience reception, as a criticalconcept bound to distributionand marketingaims. Today, even these modernist corrections,discussions, or deconstructionsof the romanticroots of auteurism need to be taken another step towards recontextualizingthem withinindustrial and commercial trajectories.

4. Roland Barthes,"The Death of theAuthor," in Image-Music-Text,trans. Stephen Heath (New York:Hill and Wang, 1977) 142-48. 5. David Bordwell,Narration in theFiction Film (Madison: U. of WisconsinPress, 1985) 211.

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Illustratingthis need to investigatehow "the authoris constructedby and forcommerce," John Caughie has noted thatthis question has been overlookedsince Brecht's1931 accountof TheThreepenny Opera trialin whichBrecht "brilliantly exposes the contradictionin cinema betweenthe commercial need to maintainthe ideology of thecreative artistand the simultaneousneed to redefineownership in termsof capital,rather than creative investment."6 This attentionto a commerceof auteurismis especiallycritical in keepingpace withthe auteuras a practiceand interpretativecategory duringthe last fifteen years, the period when the play of commerce has increasinglyassimilated the action of enunciation and expression.Cer- tainlysuch a revaluationof auteurismas more than enunciatoryex- pressionor a heuristiccategory could and shouldtake place acrossany of itshistorical variations and to a certainextent has alreadybeen implicitin thesocial and historicalemphasis of a "politiquedes auteurs." Yet the internationalimperatives of postmodernculture have made it clear thatcommerce is now much more thanjust a contendingdis- course:if, in conjunctionwith the so-called international art cinema of the sixtiesand seventies,the auteur had been absorbedas a phantom presencewithin a text,he or she has rematerializedin theeighties as a commercialperformance of the business of being an auteur.To followthis movein a postmodernculture, the practices of auteurism now must be re-theorizedin termsof thewider material strategies of social agency. Here theauteur can be describedaccording to theconditions of a cultural and commercialintersubjectivity, a social interactiondistinct froman intentionalcausality or textualtranscendence. Models of agencyare usefulhere precisely because theyare models of intersubjectivitywhich aim to underminethe metaphysicsand the authorityof expression and intention.They delineate a model of action in whichboth expressionand receptionare conditionedand moni- toredby reflectivepostures towards their material conditions. Charles Taylor,for instance, has argueda model of humanagency which fore- grounds"second orderdesires" where the "reflectiveself-evaluation" of "the self-interpretingsubject" has as itsobject "the having of certain

6. Theoriesof Authorship: A Reader 2; BertoltBrecht, Gesammelte Werke (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp,1967) 18: 139-209; in French,Le Procdsde quat'sous:experience sociologique, trans.J.-L. Lebraveand J.-P.Leftbvre (Paris: Editons de l'Arche,1970) 148-221.See also Ben Brewster,"Brecht and the FilmIndustry," Screen 16.4 (Winter1975-76): 16-- 33. See also RobertSelf, "Robert Altmanand the Theoryof Authorship,"Cinema Journal25.1 (Fall 1985): 3-11.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:59:47 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 48 The Commerceof Auteurism first-orderdesires."' Similarly, Anthony Giddens suggests a materialist model of expressionas self-reflectiveaction: the motivation of expressive action,the rationalizationof thataction, and the reflectivemoni- toringof actionconcomitantly interact to map the structureof expression as a reflectivesocial discoursewhich necessarily calls attentionto the materialterms of its communication.8In both cases, agencybe- comes a mode of enunciationwhich describes an activeand moni- toredengagement with its own conditionsas the subjectiveexpresses itselfthrough the socially symbolic. In thecinema, the auteur-as-agen- cythus becomes a place forencountering not so much a transcending meaning(of first-orderdesires) but the differentconditions through whichexpressive meaning is made by an auteurand reconstructedby an audience,conditions which involve historical and culturalmotiva- tionsand rationalizations.Here, even reluctant auteurs like Kluge may strategicallyembrace the more promisingpossibilities of theauteur as a commercialpresence, since the commercialstatus of thatpresence now necessarilybecome partof an agencywhich culturally and socially monitorsspectatorial identification and criticalreception.

TheAuteur as Star Wherethe practice of the auteur as a particularbrand of socialagen- cy initiatesa revisionof itsrelation with film audiences - and where Klugefinds his openingfor addressing those audiences - is, paradox- ically,in the contemporarystatus of the auteuras a star.This idea of theauteur-star may appear merely to harkback to theearlier avatars of auteurismwho were placed in certainaesthetic and intellectualpan- theons:from Orson Wellesto RobertBresson, the celebrity of auteurism was a productof a certaintextual distinction. Despite the general consistencyof thetradition of thetextual auteur, more recent versions ofauteurist positions have deviated from its textual center. In linewith themarketing transformation ofthe auteur of theinternational art cinema into the cult of personalitythat definedthe filmartist of the seventies,auteurs have increasinglybecome situatedalong an extra- textualpath, in whichtheir commercial status as auteursis theirchief functionas auteurs: the auteur-staris meaningfulprimarily as a

7. Charles Taylor, Human Agencyand Language: PhilosophicalPapers I (Cambridge: CambridgeU. Press,1985) 43, 28, and 15. 8. Anthony Giddens, CentralProblems in Social Theory:Action, Structure, and Contrastin SocialAnalysis (Berkeley: U. of CaliforniaPress, 1983).

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promotionor recoveryof a movie or group of movies,frequently re- gardlessof the filmictext itself.9 Like Michael Cimino'sHeaven's Gate, auteuristmovies are oftenmade before they are made; and, like Coppola's Tucker,a director's promoted biography can preemptmost textualreceptions of a movie.'0In a twiston the traditionof certain moviesbeing vehicles for certain stars, the auteur-starcan potentially carryand redeem any sortof textualmaterial, often to the extentof makingus forgetthat material through the marvel of its agency. In this sense,promotional technology and productionfeats become the new "camera-stylo,"serving a new auteurismin which the makingof a movie (like Fitzcarraldo)or its unmaking(as with TwilightZone) fore- ground an agency that foreclosesthe text itself.As Godard has parodiedit so incisivelyin recentfilms like King Lear, in today'scom- mercewe wantto knowwhat our authorsand auteurslook likeor how theyact; it is the textthat may now be dead." Placed beforeand aftera filmtext and in effectusurping the work of thattext and its reception,today's auteurs are agentswho, whether theywish it or not,are alwayson theverge of being consumed by their statusas stars.By thisI am not suggestingsome brandof egotismbut that the binarydistinctions that once formulatedmost models of auteuristexpression or formalorganization have collapsed intowhat Dana Polan has called the postmodern"evacuation of sense" within mass culture.12The oppositionalcalculus of expressionto text,psy- chologyto meaning,or authorityto interpretationno longersustains

9. An example of thisposition, one whichresponds to the special statusof the auteur yet fails to relecton its largercultural and criticalimplications, is Jospeh Gelmis'sThe Film Director as Superstar(Garden City, NJ: Doubleday, 1970): "Over half themovie tickets sold todayare boughtby moviegoers between the ages ofsixteen and twenty-five.They knowwhat a directoris, whathe does and whathe's done" (xvii). More recentlyand specifically,see JefferyChown, HollywoodAuteur: Francis Coppola (New York:UMI, 1988). 10. One particularlysignificant account of the contemporaryauteur as self-pro- motingsuperstar is StevenBach, Final Cut: Dreams and Disaster in the Making of "Heaven's Gate"(New York:New AmericanLibrary, 1986). A moretheoretical and pertinentdis- cussion is SheilaJohnston, "A Staris Born: Fassbinderand the New GermanCine- ma," NewGerman Critique 24-25 (Fall/Winter1981-82): 57-72. 11. One of the most sensationalexamples of how the productionprocess of a auteurcan usurp the filmin severalsenses is Les Blank'sBurden of Dreams (1981/2), whichdocuments Herzog's makingof Fitzcarraldo(1982). 12. Dana Polan,"Brief Encounters: Mass Cultureand theEvacuation of Sense," in Studiesin Entertainment: Critical Approaches toMass Culture, ed. Tania Modleski(Blooming- ton: U. of Indiana Press,1986) 167-187.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:59:47 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 50 The Commerceof Auteurism the contemporaryauteur film. Instead, institutional and commercial agencydefines auteurism almost exclusively as publicityand advertise- ment,that is, as botha provocativeand emptydisplay of materialsur- face thatintercepts those more traditionaldynamics. Although film- makersmay write manifestos and presideover movements, Meaghan Morrishas noted(in languagesimilar to RichardDyer's description of stars)that today "the primarymodes of filmand auteurpackaging are advertising,review snippeting, trailers, magazine profiles - alwaysal- readyin appropriationas the precondition,and not the postproduc- tion of meaning."'3To respondto a movie as primarilyor merelya Spielbergfilm is, afterall, the pleasureof refusingan evaluativerela- tionto it- a pleasurethat might be equallytrue of the standard receptionof Herzog movies- and much ofthat pleasure lies in beingable to knowalready, not read, the meaning of the film in a totalizingimage thatprecedes the movie in thepublic images of its creator.14 An auteur filmtoday seems to aspiremore and moreto a criticaltautology, capable of being understoodand consumedwithout being seen. Like an AndyWarhol movie, it can communicatea greatdeal fora largenum- ber of audiences who know the maker'sreputation but have never seen the filmsthemselves. For Kluge,it seems thatthe evolutionof auteurisminto a kind of postmodernstardom has now, followingan ironythat runs through manyof his projects, come to servehis aims for relocating a spectator's relationto a filmas a more materialengagement with the cultural agenciesof history.

An Agentof Agency: A PrismaticEffect Of theseveral tacks within the commerce of the auteur-star, two are most pertinenthere: the commercialauteur and the auteurof commerce.Although the firstcategory could theoreticallyinclude a vast rangeof stars as directorsand directorsas stars(Sylvester Stallone, Ma- donna, ClintEastwood, and so forth),more purportedlyrespectable names in thisgroup would includeSpielberg, George Lucas, BrianDe

13. MeaghanMorris, "Tooth and Claw:Tales ofSurvival and CrocodileDundee," in UniversalAbandon: The Politics of Postmodernism, ed. Andrew Ross (Minneapolis: U. of MinnesotaPress, 1988) 122-123;Richard Dyer, Stars (London: BFI, 1979). 14. Cf. TimothyCorrigan, "Producing Herzog: Froma Body of Images," in The Filmsof Werner Herzog: Between Mirage and History,ed. Timothy Corrigan (New York and London: Methuen,1986) 3-19.

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Palma, David Lean and, withdifferent agendas, John Sayles,Woody Allen,Truffaut of thelater years, Lina Wertmuller,and the Bertolucci of the latestAcademy Awards. My argumentso farwould assimilate mostof these names, since what defines this group is a recognition,ei- therfoisted upon themor chosen by them,that the celebrityof their agencyproduces and promotestexts that invariably exceed the movie itself,both beforeand afterits release. The second categoryis, I believe,the more intriguingvariation on thefirst, for there a filmmakerattempts to monitoror reworkthe insti- tutionalmanipulations of the auteuristposition within the commerce of the contemporarymovie industry.If normallythe auteuristtext promotesand recuperatesa movie, these filmmakersnow run the commerceof the auteuristand autonomousself up againstits textual expressionin a way thatshatters the coherencyof both authorialex- pressionand stardom.Motivations, desires, and historicaldevelop- ments- whichare frequentlydramatized in criticalreadings of films as at leastsemi-autobiographical - now become destablizedand usu- allywith a purpose: did the same Fassbinderwho made MariaBraun give us Querelle?is it the same self-exiledand stridentlyindependent Coppola who says"I need to be a solo guy" and thenfor Tucker hum- bly surrendedthe filmto George Lucas's "marketingsense of what people want"?'5While a more traditionalauteurist position could de- scribethese changes in perspectiveand expressionaccording to some coherentnotion of evolution,an evaluationof many contemporary filmmakersmust admitfissures and discrepancieswhich consciously employthe public image of the auteurin orderto confrontand frag- mentits expressivecoherence.'6 I believeKluge has positionedhimself more and morewithin such a commerceof auteurism, admitting and reworkingthe institutional im- posturesand excessesof an auteuristposition today in a waythat aligns him somewhatpeculiarly on this frontwith filmmakers like Raoul

15. RobertLindsey, "Francis Ford Coppola: Promisesto Keep," New YorkTimes Magazine,section 6 (24 July1988): 23-27. 16. In Narrationand theFiction Film, David Bordwellrecognizes this fragmentation of the auteurbut sees it as a mere variationon the traditionalauteur-narrator: "The popularityof R.W. Fassbinderin recentyears may owe somethingto his abilityto changenarrational personae from film to filmso thatthere is a 'realist'Fassbinder, a 'literary'Fassbinder, a 'pastiche'Fassbinder, a 'frenzied'Fassbinder, and so on" (210). ObviouslyI believethat mobilizing these different agencies within an auteuristcate- goryhas largerimplications.

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Ruiz, Nagisa Oshima, R. W. Fassbinder,the Godard of the eighties, and Coppola. Walkinga tightropebetween the image as a romantic auteurand his recognitionof itscommercial conditions, Kluge has re- centlydescribed himself as a "demolitionartist" whose position under theBig Top todayalternates between a highwireartist and a perform- ingclown: "I'm RobinsonCrusoe. If I'm an artist,I am alone,and in- dividuallyI can workonly this way. I'm esotericlike Adorno is, like everyartist is. But I would like to have camouflage,mimicry. I think it'simportant not to showone is an artistnowadays, because it'sa very dangerousstatus."" Again, this claim both to be an artistand to mimic the image of the artistdoes not contradictKluge's earlieraesthetic programsin revisingthe needs of"Autorenfilm" as a cooperativecine- ma nor his otherefforts to generatethe multiple perspectives of a public sphere.Yet, if in thesixties and earlyseventies those efforts empha- sized politicaland formalstrategies that leaned towardsa counter-cultural utopia, this particularengagement with the commerce of auteurismindicates a more consciousconfrontation with his own evolution into the mainstreamof filmculture. If, comparingKluge to Wenders,Schl6ndorff, Fassbinder, and Herzog,one could previously make,more reliably,the claim thatKluge stood outsidethe interna- tionalauteurist circle, that is less truetoday as Klugecarefully pro- moteshis politics through the promotion of his name: his recent pre- mierappearance in NewYork, for example, has featured radio interviews,university symposia, negotiations with Paper Tiger, a special issue of October,and the overseeingof an Americancollection of his films and televisionprograms at the AnthologyFilm Archives.A growing televisionpresence in West Germany,Kluge has become a reluctant starwithin the international auteurist circle, and thequestion has now become forhim, I believe,the inverseof theAmerican political scene today: not how can a starabsorb the politicalbut how does a star reactivatea materialistpolitics within his or her commercialagency. The answerfor Kluge and othersis thatthere is a businessand politicsof agency that permits auteurism to remaina usefultactic in engag- ing commercialor semi-commercialpatterns of identification.Al- thoughauteurism today has effectivelyvacated agency or a metaphysics of expressivecausality and textualauthority, the shellof auteurism

17. YvonneRainer and ErnestLarsen, "'We Are DemolitionArtists': An Interview withAlexander Kluge," TheIndependent (June 1989): 21.

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- thatremains in theform of a materialpublicity - opens a space for thedramatization of subjectivityrefusing its own expressiveauthority, fora dramatizationof subjectivityas, in fact,a materialintersubjec- tivityresponsive to the action of self-interpretationand self-critique. To put thisin linguisticterms, the mechanismsfor identifying with a speakingsubject, usually a director,have become as importantto communicationin filmculture today as theso-called textual statement of a movie itselfor the differentways it is receivedby differentaudi- ences: thecommercial drama of a movie'ssource can sayas much today as the drama of the movie and the dispositionsof itsviewers. As importantas the textof a Klugefilm becomes the workof criticalre- ceptionthat Kluge initiates across his name,his auteuriststatus and his public's knowledgeof it. Kluge thus findsin the contemporaryagency of auteurismone of severalpostmodern grounds on whichto initiatea modernistcritique of contemporarycynicism and vacancy,a wayof reorganizinga deval- ued and emptiedauteurism as a criticalsubjectivity.'8 As earlyas 1979, he claims,"I have alwaysbelieved in auteurcinema." But "auteurcinema," he continues,"is not a minorityphenomenon: all people relate to theirexperiences like authors- ratherthan managersof depart- mentstores."'9" Implicit even in theseremarks is an understandingof auteurismas a processof identificationwhich can reflectitself as an agencyfor critical "self-interpretation" in its audience; such a reception of auteurismis possible largelybecause a putativecreative presence has been commerciallydislocated from textual authority and re- focusedas the mechanismsof agency.Indeed, one sees an especially concreteand anticipatoryversion of thiscritical use of the agencyof auteurismin Kluge'srelease and re-releaseof perhapshis mostcom- mercialundertaking, Strongman Ferdinand: he followedthe filmfrom theaterto theater,the authorialsource repositioned as a criticalinter- locutordefined by the diversityof his audience.The auteurbecomes literallyrealized as an agencyconstructed across the diverseresponse

18. Klugeremarks: "We are not postmodernists.I believe in the avant-garde.But thatis not wherethe distinctionlies. There are twodifferent approaches: dominating thematerials and respectingthe materials. The firstwould takematerials to realizein- tentions.The opposed attitudewould be to accept the autonomyof thesematerials, whichare living."Stuart Liebman, "On New GermanCinema, Art, Enlightenment, and thePublic Sphere: An Interviewwith Alexander Kluge," October 46 (Fall 1988): 57. 19. AlexanderKluge, "On Filmand thePublic Sphere," trans. Thomas Levinand MiriamHansen, NewGerman Critique 24-25(Fall/Winter 1981-82): 206-207.

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of a genuinelypublic sphere - not unlikeone of Charles Moore's postmodernbuildings, constructed through the interactionof com- munityplanning. Kluge's aestheticand ideologicalplay with agency within the commerceof auteurismmay be seen actedout acrossa spectrumof other artisticand social texts:from public appearances and social and political commitmentsto literaryand non-literarywritings, from rumored historiesof one's pastto one's penchantfor a certaincamera person or a particularstar.20 A recenttelevision program which he has produced, forinstance, features a collage of different"auteurs" fromthe New German Cinema (Helke Sanders, Margarethevon Trotta,Herzog, VolkerSchl6ndorff), yet the showrefuses to identifythe specificprod- uct of any particulardirector. Indeed, forKluge, the very multiplicity of his own personae,as a universityprofessor, novelist, aesthetician, politician,lawyer, disciple of Adorno, and businessmanbecomes a fortuitousinstability within the auteurist perspective on hisfilmmaking career.Other, more textual dimensions, would includehis early use of his sisteras a familialcounterpart in filmslike Yesterday Girl, his place as adaptor of his own stories,such as ThePatriot, and the books that reassemble movies like The Patriotand The Powerof Emotionaround Kluge'sown voice and promulgations.21Like the wry voice-over whose "useless remarks"introduce The Patriot, his expressiveagency through mostof these tactics achieves a "prismaticeffect" which tends to assert and thendisperse its own authority.22 As a muchmore specific case, however,I wantto look brieflyat one "semi-textual"strategy which is oftentaken for granted in Kluge'sand otherauteurs' work: the interview - one ofthe few, documentable extra-textualspaces where Kluge engages and disperseshis own organizing agencyas auteur.The standarddirectorial interview might be describedaccording to theaction of promotion and explanation:it is the writingand explainingof a filmthrough the promotion of a certainin- tentionalself; it is frequentlythe commercialdramatization of selfas themotivating agent of textuality. With Kluge, though, it becomes a dialogue about complicationsand deferralin which in his words he,

20. For additionalexamples of thesemoves within Kluge's artistic practice and biography, see Thomas B6hm-Christl,ed., AlexanderKluge (Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp,1983). 21. AlexanderKluge, Die Patriotin:Texte/Bilder 1-6(Frankfurt am Main: Zweitausen- deins, 1979); Die Machtder Gefiihle (Frankfurt am Main: Zweitausendeins,1984). 22. Rainerand Larsen23-24.

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"likea catalyst,[. .] disappearsfrom the process." Indeed much ofat- tractionof the interviewformat for Kluge may be preciselythat dialogicor polylogicstructure which is ignoredin most auteuristen- countersbut whichfor him is enactedas somethingbetween a con- flictualdebate and the relationalexperience of "chatting"(which Klugeoddly associates with women). This kindof encounterobviously parallelsKluge's work with textual montage and his otherefforts to re- place creativeauthority with a more cooperativeand conflictualex- change.Yet hereit has the specificadvantage of reformulatingthe co- herenceof intention and theopacity of celebrity that attaches indepen- dentlyto theagency of auteurism,the path which in thecontemporary filmindustry has become increasinglyimportant in formingmodes of identificationas expressiveaction. For Kluge,the interviewregularly accentuates that presentation of agencyaccording to a seriesof rhetoricaland structuralstrategies. As earlyas 1974Jan Dawson recordedthis tendency when she introduced a longinterview as "a fragmented,three-day conversation." After reading the transcriptof thatinterview, Kluge distancedhimself further fromit by complainingabout itsabstractions and askingDawson "to cut down the generalisationsand explicatehis meaningwith more concreteillustrations from the films." Confronted with all thesedislo- cationsof herspeaking subject, Dawson tookproper refuge in Kluge's filmaesthetics, asking the readerto "createtheir own interviewfrom the textthat follows."23 More specifically(and more recently),one findsin Kluge's inter- viewsa tendencynot only to alternatethe abstractwith the concrete but to embed thatconcrete in a disconnectedmontage of seemingly digressivestories, placing himself as an emptyagent at the centerof "not one storybut manystories."24 These anecdotescan rangefrom accountsof thefilming of an evictionin Frankfurtto storiesabout the "historyof the plow, which in 8 A.D. alreadylooked like it does today" to pseudo-confessionalfantasies of love-makingin thedeserts of Afri- ca.25Sometimes, these episodic digressions can serveas illustrationsof certainpoints, but just as oftenthey stand out as Brechtiangests which seem intentionallyto troublethe historical and culturalplace of Kluge

23. AlexanderKluge and the Occasional Work of a FemaleSlave, ed. JanDawson (Perth:A PerthFilm FestivalPublication, 1975) 27. 24. Kluge,"On Film and the Public Sphere" 206. 25. Kluge,"On Film and the Public Sphere" 216-17

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:59:47 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 56 The Commerceof Auteurism himselfas speakingsubject: the apparent failure to maintaina consist- encyin subjectmatter or historicalepisode monitorsa speakerwhose agencyis regularlybeing fractured by that matter. This is thepresenta- tionof Klugeas historicalraconteur who, unlike the Reagan paradigm, does notuse thehistorical anecdote to fabricatehimself as a transcendentor opaque agentof discourse ("anything I sayis importantand true simplybecause I say it") but to disperse or dislocate his agency throughthe material variety of history's "histoires" ("because anything could be said it surpassesany coherenceI can giveit"). A second characteristicof the Klugevoice is itsability to absorb or deflecta centered,critical position. As has been commonfrom the beginning,an interviewwith Kluge is an interviewwith a complexplural- itymanifested in his third-or first-personplural voice and the deflec- tionof most questions about his specificwork towards larger financial, artisticand politicalissues. In an interviewwith Stuart Liebman, for instance,Kluge consistently redefines his own alliances,relocating himself as a filmmakerwith a varietyof odd bedfellows.He accepts Herzog as an ally,as "an amateurlike me." "Even filmslike The Boat, TheNever-Ending Story, The Name ofthe Rose," he allows, "are made the Oberhausenway." Yet he findsStraub and Huillet'sMoses and Aaron, a filmthat would seem close to Kluge's own materialistaesthetics, too visual in its recreationof the opera.26At one point,cinemas are declared dead and televisionhailed as the future;but thenhe acknow- ledges,"we willcome throughtelevision to cinemaagain." Withtypi- cal mobilityand contrariety,he refusesfull identification with either themodernist or postmodernistschool, and insteaddeclares his work "classical"in itsfaith in a counter-publicsphere.27 His objectionsand agreementsalways appear as onlyqualifiers, making waffling appear a strictpolitical program: "we have no objections,"he saysof his and Negt's disagreementswith the historicalfocus of Habermas's work, "but we have a differentfield of employment."28In a 1989 interview withYvonne Rainer and ErnestLarsen, Rainer pursues the elusive "we" thatKluge becomes,and the responseonly diffuses the agency furtherbefore it paradoxicallyjoins rankswith Der Spiegel:

26. Liebman 31, 49, 25. 27. Liebman 43. 28. Liebman 42.

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We have organizedourselves. We have organizedall opera houses and theatersin Germany,book publishersand independentfilm- makers.In otherwords, the traditional media - notnewspapers or broadcastartists - thebooks, cinemas, theaters, and thecircus. They belongtogether. And on televisionthey look verydifferent. This is understandablebecause originally they had nothingto do withtelevi- sion.We also have a partner,the news magazine Der Spiegel.29

To paraphrase his own words, this auteurial voice - mobile, critical, and generous in the sense he applies it to Adorno - is a voice of contin- ual differentiationin which it becomes more a predicateand a "porous" agent than an authorizingexpression. Interviewtactics such as these are not, obviously,radical politicalges- tures. As a part of the diversifiedconfrontation that is Kluge's project, however,they can marka significantmove withinthe criticalreception of agency. Indeed, the questionable possibilityof a "radical gesture" itself may be exactlywhat is implicitin a perspectiveon auteurismas critical agency.As Charles Taylor notes about the subject/agentof Sartre's"radical choice" (who might equally be the classical auteur or the textual auteur of the sixties):

He would be utterlywithout identity. [.. .] The subjectof radical choiceis anotheravatar of thatrecurrent figure, which our civiliza- tionaspires to realize,the disembodiedego, the subjectwho can objectifyall being,including his own, and choose in radicalfree- dom. But the promisedtotal self-possession would in factbe the mosttotal self-loss.30

Instead, as I believe Kluge recognizes on all fronts,the preliminaryques- tion to all other questions of symbolicform within today's international culturemust concern the materialconditions and agencies of inter-subjectivity.This is a politicsof agencythat moves beyond radical choice towards thatof the radical evaluation and openness of a public sphere,towards, in Charles Taylor's words, the "deepest unstructuredsense of what is important." Kluge has said of the styleof his films,"one doesn't see the cut, but my signatureresides in it." Likewise,one might say of his agency as an auteur,one hardlysees the expressionbecause the speakerresides so rig- orously in the materialpolitics of its predication.

29. Rainerand Larsen 19. 30. Taylor35.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:59:47 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "YouCan't Always Get What You Want": TheFilms of Alexander Kluge*

Helke Sander

Lookingat thefilms of Alexander Kluge, two themes continue to re- playthemselves, taking shape and addingto the richnessof his work. The firsttheme is the multiplicityin the seeminglydefinite. The second, the unwantedwithin the wanted.While both themescontribute to the complexityof the contentand structureof Kluge's films,they also cause problemsfor the seriousand engagedviewer. It becomes increasinglyclear that one of the major problemsis theway in which both themesare integralto Kluge's portrayalof women - in itselfa thornyand volatileissue. In shapingthe first theme, the multiplicity in theseemingly definite, Klugeemphasizes that the emotionallife of each and everyindividual is notonly manifold and inconsistent,but thatvarious strands of emotions,instincts, desires, and needs have come to a haltat differentlev- els of development.In effect,as human beingsour emotionalorgani- zation is out of harmonywith our social organization,creating a sourceof unendingconflict. To illustratethis point, take a simplecon- versationbetween two people, in which,for instance,values of the 19thcentury are mixed up and confusedwith those of the 15thand 20thcenturies. This explainswhy, in additionto thedifficulty we have understandingourselves, communication with others becomes complicated- ifnot a matterof sheerluck. SomewhereKluge uses theexample of dinosaurswho, accordingto

* I wishto thankRegina Cornwell for her help in reworkingthe English version of thispaper forpublication.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:00:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 60 TheFilms of Kluge one theory,became extinctbecause theirnervous systems transmitted impulsesso slowlythat coordination between brain and limbsgradu- allybecame impossible.When, for instance, a dinosaurhad a leg inju- ryand bled, themessage took about twentyminutes to travelfrom the wound to the brain.Once realizationhad hitthe dinsoaur'sbrain, it was too late foradequate reaction- theanimal was alreadybleeding to death. Kluge's second themeis difficulteven to describe:one alwaysgets somethingin additionto whatone wants,and possiblyeven gets. And when one getsthis something one doesn't at all wantbut getsall the same, it unfoldsits own dynamic. I would liketo contributean experiencethat strongly impressed me as a childand has stayedwith me. It now servesas a parablefor Kluge's pointabout theunwanted. It was Christmastime in postwarGermany. Word got around that Christmascandles were available at the new Woolworth.However, you could only buy 10 thincandles if,at the same time,you boughttwo kilogramsof footpowder. 20 Christmas candles, the minimum for a proper Christmastree, meant four kilogramsof foot powder - a productunknown to us all. In mymind I stillsee familiesstruggling with huge bags offoot powder since, in light of the manypower cuts, they wanted to providethemselves with candles beyondChristmas. One was not to be had withoutthe other. The multiplicityin the seeminglydefinite, the unwantedwithin the wantedmark for me the intellectualthreads running through Kluge's films.They form the backbone for the interpolations, the chains of association,and the manyfragmented and impliedstories in his films. In contrastto a Kluge film,we have the conventionalfeature film thatthrives on a lackof ambiguity. For thebenefit of this lack, a simple mise-en-scneis createdand actorsare typecast.One standardstate- mentin traditionalnarrative film, that mommy loves daddy, and daddy loves his wife,that the childrenlove theirparents and the parents theirchildren, is in factthe conditionof murderand homicide.Here one lack of ambiguityclashes with another incompatible one. To me, Kluge'sfilms are quite the opposite.He not onlymakes intellectually anti-dramaticworks, but is himselfa passionateanti-dramatist. He would expose the sentence"I love you" as a compromiseamong the various strandswithin one person. The intertitle"Reduction of a Crime by Way of Cooperation" (fromThe Power of Emotion [Die Machtder Gefiihle,1983]) seems to me typicalof this. In the film TheAssault of the

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Presenton theRest of Time[Der Angriff der Gegenwart auf die itbrigeZeit, 1985]1,one man confessesto anotherthat he has marriedhis wifeout of politeness.The word "politeness"means more herethan the word "love." On screen,a man who says he is marryingout of politeness maybe projectingmore of hisreal feelings to theaudience than a man who claims to marryfor love. This statementis pleasantlyunsenti- mentaland highlightsthe "gooeyness"normally associated with the word "love." However,politeness is a word and an idea thateludes dramaand thusalmost any adaptability to screen.The truthin marryingout ofpoliteness does noteasily translate into action. This is whyin this,as well as in otherof Kluge'sfilms, explanations and differentia- tionsslip into the voice-overcommentary, making them increasingly more important.These commentariesare alwaysspoken by Kluge himself,who alwayshas the last word. Klugejumps frompoint to point.If one thinksthat he is settingout to confusehis audience,this is partlytrue; however, his pathto clarity leads throughconfusion. This createsa dilemmafor the viewer. While one can understandwhy Kluge deliversmonologues on communication(one ofhis majorthemes), this doesn't make listening to themany easier.After all, we as viewersare just as complicatedas theauthor. We are slow and need timewhen confronted with new subjects.We don't simplywant to be overwhelmedby an unfamiliarchaos, but wantin- stead to organize our own. We must protectourselves from being overwhelmedby a chaos constructedby another even as we are pleased by itspresence in thework. We requiretime to takeup unfa- miliartrains of thoughtand more timestill to dwellon and to assimilate them.However, we findthat Kluge is alreadyon the nexttrain of thoughtwhen we have hardlymanaged to reachthe last one. This is,of course,stimulating, intellectually refreshing, and ofgenuine entertainmentvalue, but it quicklybecomes tiring.These mentaljumps cause symptomsin the viewersimilar to thosedescribed in Kluge's TheAs- saultof the Present on theRest of Time, when a man, in conversationwith anotherman about his wife,says: "I have myway and she getsill." Klugedoes notgive us enoughtime to distinguishbetween what he refersto as a "real quarrel" and a "fundamentaldisagreement" in ex- plainingwhy the woman becomes ill. In a Kluge filmonly Kluge speaksto us, controllingboth commentary and visualstructure. We as

1. The Americanrelease title of the filmis TheBlind Director.

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viewersare allowedneither space nor distancenor timeto addressthe contradictionsand objectionsarising within us in responseto his control.The protestagainst the "too much" in Kluge'sfilms is theequiva- lentof the above-mentionedfoot powder. In thiscase the Christmas candles representthe liberatingthought combinations which we get onlywhen we giveourselves over without mercy to hischains of associations.Despite the openness of Kluge'sform we are almosthermetical- lycaught up in it.This in itselfis significant.Ensnared as we are in his thinking,problems arise when we findourselves disagreeing or at odds withKluge's constructions.We mustthen find a wayto intervene. AlexanderKluge and I met over a "real quarrel." In 1974-75,I wrote a scathing critique of his film Part-TimeWork of a DomesticSlave [Gelegenheitsarbeiteiner Sklavin, 1973] forthe journal Frauenund Film. I re- proachedhim withthe factthat his protagonist,contrary to his intentions,was once againnothing but a patriarchalprojection. Today, with moreinformation, I am betterable to expressthis feeling that has never leftme, not even in watchinghis laterfilms. After this quarrel, we became friendsand my criticismbecame less free- pushed, as it were,somewhat into the background. I was takenin by Kluge'scharm, his intelligence,as well as his wit (whichto me is irresistible);by his abilityto correlateunusual facts, one withthe other; and by his gener- osity.His filmsgive me so much thatI am well able to push aside for quite some timewhatever I do not wantfrom them. Nonetheless, I discoveredthat his anti-drama is a form- hisform of kindness. Relin- quishingdrama and openingup his filmsto ambiguityand multiplicity,Kluge's form of kindnessis somethinglike advice designed to wipe out definiteoccasions for destruction and even thedesire for destruction. Kluge's patriarchalviewpoint, as I interpretit, is the object of the disputebetween us. However,what actually takes place is more likea continuous"non-dispute." It is somethingthat I can bestdescribe using the wordsthat Kluge employsin the above-mentionedconversa- tion between two men in TheAssault of the Present:

GERLACH: Something'swrong with your argument. BEHRENDS: That was no argument,but a process.Step by step. GERLACH: Due to disagreement? BEHRENDS: Due to fundamentaldisagreement. GERLACH: Who loses the quarrel? BEHRENDS: The two of us, always. I have my way and she gets ill.

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GERLACH: And it can't go on like that? BEHRENDS: Sure,why not.

Social conditionsaren't such that she could gether way and hewould get ill. Nor would it improvematters; it would however,change the pattern.Despite his abilityto associate,Kluge simplydoesn't think of askinghimself why it is alwaysonly she who getsill. Quarrelingis difficultin any case, particularlywith people one likes a lot. In thisconnection I would liketo tella storythat continually re- peats itselfeverywhere, causing fatigueand querulousnessin those who tellit because theyare aware thatnothing much willchange. A fewweeks ago on Germantelevision there was a roundtablediscus- sion on thepossible pardon of two former terrorists by thePresident of the FederalRepublic. Six men and one woman participated;three of themen were strongly against the pardon, three were for it. The woman and one of themen, former members of the RAF terroristgroup, had spent 15 yearsin prison.Five of the men were knownto the public. Since his releasethe sixthman had oftenbeen interviewedand dealt withthe media relativelywell. The men were self-assured,calm, and confident.The womanwas speakingin publicfor the first time after 15 yearsof silence,and she wantedto say somethingdifferent from the others.She wantedto say thatshe consideredinhuman a systemin whichthousands of people die of hungerevery day and millionsare withouta roof over theirheads. She spoke in a shrillvoice witha justifiedfear of beinginterrupted. Needless to say,she did not make a favorableimpression. Sitting all hunchedup in her chair,the woman goton everyone'snerves. Her eyeswere filled with tears, for which she triedto compensateby occasionalhysterical giggling. She did nothave thecharm of youth. For the others, particularly for those who wanted to help her,she was an embarrassment.The threewho wantedto "help" did not giveher the space in whichshe could quietlyexpress herself, but insteadinterpreted her statements.They smoothedover her hard words.They soothinglyintervened and explainedto the otherthree men thatthe woman actually was notas bad as theimpression she was projectingwould suggest.Paralyzed and silent,the woman sat there, one meterremoved from the others who interpretedor maliciouslyat- tackedher. It was a lesson in discussion-terrorism. In Kluge'sfilms, women are treatedin a similar,although somewhat more moderate way. While Kluge's landscape is filledwith women, the question always arises: what are they allowed to do? Examples from

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ThePatriot [Die Patriotin,1979] and TheAssault of the Present illustrate this point. ThePatriot begins with a titlewhich tells us thatHannelore Hoger playsthe role of historyteacher Gabi Teichert.We see her in a closeup. Her partis not definedby her,but forher by thevoice-over commentary:"Gabi Teichert,history teacher in Hesse, is a patriot,that is, she sympathizeswith all the dead of the nation."A sequence dealing withthose dead follows:we see a battlefieldof the distant past, and war materialsof the lastworld war. Then a two-wordintertitle appears in capitalletters: THE KNEE. This titleis accompaniedby Kluge'svoice recitingChristian Morgenstern's poem about the lonelyknee running around the world.A montagesection follows, recalling war through repeatedimages of soldiers,male choirs,graves, and buildings.Then comes a long monologue.The kneeis givena voice lentby Kluge,the narrator.All doubts are removed;after all, the knee does talk. The kneefrequently expresses itself during the film in extraordinarily long,uninterrupted passages. The protagonistGabi Teichert,however, is piecedtogether through commentaries and onlyrarely gets a chance to speakherself. When she does open hermouth, she eitherreads texts by othersor attemptsto reconstructthe writings of others,such as Ode ToJoy (Schiller's poem whichBeethoven set to music).Or, she refusesto speakbecause she is tired.The onlyreal initiative she displaysis to urge delegatesduring a politicalparty convention to changetheir policies so thatshe willhave betterteaching material. After all, who doesn'twant politicalchange and "bettermaterials"? Women and small children can make thesedemands in all naiveteand innocence.Yet men can laughand calmlyreturn to theirnormal business after a speechsuch as Gabi Teichert's,for the demands of thiswoman patriotare so vague and out of place as not to be takenseriously. Gabi Teichert,in search of anotherGerman history,may roam about the woods witha shoveland dig in the earth,bore a hole into books and saw themup, but she is neverallowed to formulateher own questions.She bores,digs, and saws "blindly,"as it were.The com- mentaryexplains to the audience what she is doing and what she means by her actions.It also definesthe meaningof patriot:a person who sympathizeswith all the country'sdead. For the past 20 yearsfeminist linguistics, philosophy, history, and analysis have filledvolumes tellingus thata termlike "woman patriot" (Patriotin)is not innocent. In a manner of speaking, the very term

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"woman patriot"is already a joke. Realistically,a woman patriot doesn't even exist,because a patriotis reallya male who does some- thingfor his country.A patriotis a partof the patriarchal.There is an Africanlanguage in whichyou cannotsay "I'm sleeping"simply because one cannotsay thiswhile sleeping. "I'm sleeping"is thusa lie, and thereis no grammaticalform in thislanguage for the expression. After20 yearsof the feminist movement, "woman patriot"is similarto thisgrammatical impossibility. Whoever uses it,whether male or female, should at least be awareof the extremeirony of the term. But obviouslythis is not thecase here,where the term is employed in dead earnest.Kluge says that Gabi Teichertsympathizes with all the nation'sdead. If we were to go along withKluge and accept,for the timebeing, that she does, thenwe should actuallyexpect something else fromher as a woman.We should expecther to see public battle- fieldshand-in-hand with other kinds of battlefields.In thisway she would retainher perception as a woman.But as thefilm's patriot, Gabi Teichertsees onlywhat she is allowedto see byher creator. And thatis onlywhat a man sees. Even withinKluge's logic it is astonishingthat she doesn't attemptto bringtogether the victimsof domesticbattles withthe pictures of war. Within this logic it is conceivablethat her eye mighttravel across graveswhere not only men and the carcassesof horseslie, but also, now and then,women who have died in child- birth,of beatingsor rape,who wereburnt as witches.It mightbe conceivablethat the props Gabi Teichertis handedto bore and sawfor the secretsin thebooks could prompther to suchquestions. But this is not thecase. The factis thatthe lack of such questionsis in mostcases not perceivedas a lack by critics,due to theirimplicit agreement that it is male perceptionthat is decisive;the absence of a feminineperspective is not even noticedas a lack. Furthermore,Kluge is a masterat always choosingwomen of greatcinematographic presence, excellent actres- ses who can feignan independencethey are not reallyallowed to possess,let alone to act upon, withinthe contextof his films. Kluge interpretssilence, and the actionsof his charactersthat result fromsilence, as positive.He praiseswomen's ability to continueto bring togetheremotional worlds that have been separated,and contendsthat womenhave notyet been subduedby thebureaucracy of the world of men.They are made to appearsuperior to men.Their irrationality is almost a sign of theirstrength. Furthermore, they should not nag. A woman who nags about the irrationalityof Kluge's female figuresis already

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halfa man,suffering from what has ruinedmen. ForKluge cannot stand men. Underlyinghis attitudeis a romanticconception of theworld, in whichwomen have characteristicsmen have eitherlost or neverpos- sessed.The idea evolvesthat women are intact,better suited to clearing awaythe wreckage caused by men. No doubtthere is a wreckagecaused by men and no doubt theyhave lostcontrol of it. As Kluge'sthought implies,only women are consideredcapable of deliveringthe world. Womenare notsupposed to rejectthis benevolence and trust.They are supposedto acceptthis role gladly,for it increasestheir worth. In the meantime,never once are theyasked whether they want to takeon responsibilityfor the wreckage that has alreadyoccurred. Kluge'sAssault of the Present offers a second example forexamining hisparticular treatment of women. In thefilm, a socialworker takes an orphanedchild with her because she does not wantto leave it witha familythat she believesincapable of giving it the warmth and attention it needs. The woman,with her "richemotional life," recognizes what is good forthe child. In thepast, women were assigned the role ofcar- ing for childrenbecause men had worthierthings to do. Here she takesthe child not because she is capable of nothingbut childcare. This time she does so because she is the betterperson, superior to men. Women who laugh at thisirony are oftenrebuked by men who are deeplymoved. After all, men now see in filmsmodem versionsof skippingout. Sincewomen are betterpeople, childrenare to staywith them- whilemen, whose presence is an impositionanyway, can "get lost." Wim Wenderstaught this very same lesson in Paris,Texas: after the trampwho lefthis wifeand son is fedup again,he takeshis child fromthe foster parents who have rearedand learnedto love him,and returnshim to his naturalmother without so muchas askingher if she wantsthe child. Then, once again,he leavesto roamthe world, a lone- ly hero. Atthe same timeas Klugeattributes value to femininecharacteristics thatfor so long have meantnothing, he also muzzles women.Wom- an's worthis increasedand men continueto wreckthe world.The multiplicityand contradictorinessthat in theoryis grantedto men is basicallynot granted to women.But Klugeslightly conceals this in his films.He tacklessubjects from which other filmmakers shrink. The filmThe Power of Emotion contains a strangestory about a rape. A woman sits in a car, preparing to commit suicide because her love has left her. She takes pills, and is found by a travellingsalesman who makes

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herdo a couple of exercisesto vomitup thetoxins. While still unconscious,she is raped bythe salesman. A thirdman watchesand informs on the rapist.The ambulance arrives,the woman is saved, and the salesmanarrested. During the trial she saysto thewoman judge: "my lover'sobstinacy and his cunninghurt me morethan the action of the accused,which I did not even notice."The commentatortells us that thejudge is out to getrapists, which makes the situation more difficult forthe accused,who did, in fact,save thewoman's life. Klugehere raises a problemvery much neglectedin thecontempo- rarydiscussions of rape: manywomen are betterable to takephysical rape thanpsychological hurt from a personclose to them.(I also take up thissubject in myfilm The Trouble With Love [Der Beginn aller Schrecken istLiebe, 1983]). In thefilm the woman has theopportunity to describe hernon-feeling towards her rapist. It is, however,strange that the feelingsof the rapistare not investigated.After all, the questionis: what makesthis man takepossession of an unconscious,temporarily dead woman? One should enquirewhether the well-known saying "only a dead Indian is a good Indian" applies here,in a more subtleform, to women. Althoughone cannotyet really do withoutwomen (as test- tube babies are notyet the rule), one can stillkill them symbolically. A lot of hiddenemotion must lie behindthe man's action;otherwise he would not have sexualfeelings without communication. The salesman makesthe woman vomit. He walksher up and down,gets her back on herfeet so thatshe is fitenough to be used by him.He does not pro- tecther, but onlyhimself so thathe cannotbe called a murderer.Had he notbeen observedand informedon bya thirdperson, he probably wouldn'thave takenthe woman to the hospital. From the commentatorwe hear the fearthat the man may get an unsympathetictrial judge, whilefrom the woman duringthe trialwe hearan emotionalstatement that the pain ofbeing rejected by her lover is greaterthan that of a rape ofwhich she was unaware- a statement thatserves to excuse the accused. From the man we neverlearn why womenin an unconsciousstate are attractiveto him,and obviouslyto othermen as well- thinkof the many rape victims of war and torture. Along the lines of "silentwoman, unconsciouswoman," I would liketo end byturning to a seeminglyharmless concept. At first glance, themeaning of thetitle The Assault of the Present on the Rest of Time is un- derstandable, making clear thatwe live in times in which it is possible to erase the future and thus the past as well. The title contains the

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:00:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 68 TheFilms of Kluge knowledgeof possible destruction and shunsthe optimism most films are,or have to be, devotedto. However,at a closerlook thetitle is not all thatprecise. Or differentlyput: itis less precisethan I wouldexpect Klugeto be. For who is assaultingwhom? Is it reallythe present? The titleacts as ifit were a disputeon grammar.The possibilityof a future is reallyquestioned. But not by "thepresent." The productscapable of destroyinglife (poisons, armaments, gene manipulation,etc.) are in the hands of people who can be named: the rulingwhite minority. Theyare in thehands ofthe ruling white men in theworld's industrial nations,who have the powerto blow up theworld around us. These men do not ask whetherthis is also in the interestof theirblack, yel- low, red, or other-colored"fellow" humans. Nor do theyask white womenwhether it is in theirinterests. The whitewoman need onlyask herselfwhether she is preparedto continueto contributeto thesuccess of destruction.The womanpatriot could have askedthat also, and she would have had herquestion, which would have givenmeaning to the sawingof the book. Correctlyput, the titleshould be TheAssault by White Man on theRest of Time.That would be just as concreteand naive as, interpretedin the bestsense, the women in Kluge'sfilms are naive.But since Kluge's title is notthis but what it is, itperhaps best proves his thesisthat our emotionsare lockedin variousstages of development.The titleThe Assault of thePresent on theRest of Time,as well as Kluge's general attitudeto- wardswomen, have just arrivedin theera ofpre-Copernican thought, in theyear 1529. BeforeCopernicus's discovery, the sun stillrevolved around the earthand themale was in God's image,the focus of crea- tion; women,trees, whales, and seals were subjectto man, to whom everyperspective led. A terriblenotion rears its head: if Kluge,the male avant-gardeartist, has onlyarrived at theyear 1529 in hisattitude towardswomen, in whatcentury have othermales arrived?

Translatedby Regina Cornwell

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:00:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Femininityas ProductiveForce: Klugeand CriticalTheory

Heide Schluipmann

When AlexanderKluge introducedthe conceptof a "femalepro- ductiveforce" into the debates of thewomen's movement in themid- 1970s, it was as part of a longstandingdiscourse on the "public sphere"(Oiffentlichkeit). The topos of thepublic spherehad been a cen- tralconcern to theleft in theFederal Republic - fromthe anti-nuclear protests(Ostermarschierer) of the 1950s and 1960s to the studentmove- ment.Whatever their particular causes mightbe, thesemovements in- voked the Enlightenmenttradition of Western democracies which the FederalRepublic purported to havejoined. As an "extraparliamentary opposition,"the left claimed to promotethe democratic process - the "coming-of-age"of the Germanpeople - in contrastto the continu- ing hold of the NationalSocialist past overpolitical, legal, social, and culturalinstitutions. Juirgen Habermas's influential study, The Structural TransformationofPublic Sphere, epitomized this critical interest in thelib- eral traditionof the public sphere.' Firstpublished in 1962,the book wentthrough three reprints before the end of the 1960s. The factthat factions of the left went underground as the 1960scame to an end had a lotto do witha disillusionment,a loss ofconfidence vis- A-visthe emancipatory substance of the bourgeois public sphere. At the same time,this loss ofconfidence defined the fragmentation ofthe pro- testmovement into the so-called "new social movements." Despairing of thepromise of universalityinherent in theformal principles of classical

1. JilrgenHabermas, Strukturwandel derOffentlichkeit: Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie derbiirgerlichen Gesellschaft (Neuwied/Darmstadt: Luchterhand, 1962).

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:42:29 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 70 Femininityas Productive Force democracy,the protest movements turned to the politicsof causes - and paid thecost of mere particularity. In contrast,Oskar Negt and Al- exanderKluge made one more attemptin theearly 1970s to resurrect the projectof the public sphereon Marxistpremises. In theirPublic Sphereand Experience[Offentlichkeit undErfahrung, 1972], Negt and Kluge maintainan emphaticnotion of the public sphereby surrenderingits bourgeoisform. With their concept of an oppositionalor "counter publicsphere" (Gegen6ffentlichkeit), theytry to extricatethe public sphere fromformalism and thedichotomy of public and private.Instead, they attemptto groundthe public spherein materialrelations, defined by economicproduction on theone hand,and by humanexperience on the other.It is no coincidence,therefore, that Negt and Kluge'sbook could figurein the 1970s as a theoreticalumbrella under which a left disintegratinginto individuals,into ecological,peace, and women's movements,could once more imagineitself unified. For thewomen's movement in particular,Public Sphere and Experience presenteda theoreticalframework within which a continuingand funda- mentalalliance of politicalstruggle could be reflectedupon - despite thepolitical exodus ofwomen from a leftthat had once been unitedin protest.The considerableimpact of thebook whenit first appeared can be explainedby lookingat the problemthat confronted the women's movementat thetime: how to reconcilefundamentalist tendencies such as "new motherhood"and thecult of matriarchywith the leftist notion ofpolitics to whichthe movement had previouslybeen committed.To- day,this notion of a unifiedpolitics has long sincedisintegrated. The attemptto contextualizefeminist politics under the umbrella of a counterpublic sphere, however, fell short of the specific impulse of that politics.The women'smovement cannot be subsumedunder the "new socialmovements," as Habermaswould have it, nor does ithave its po- liticalfoundation in any kindof "femininity."2Rather, it is foundedin oppositionto the genderhierarchy inscribed in the bourgeoispublic sphere.Re-reading Public Sphere and Experience today, it is amazinghow its critiqueof the bourgeoisconcept of the public sphereaptly analyzes theseparation of public and private,but missesthe central question of

2. JuirgenHabermas, Theorie des kommunikativen HandeIns: Zur Kritik derfunktionalistis- chenVernunft, vol. 2 (Frankfurt:Suhrkamp, 1981) 178. On Habermas'sdiscussion of the women's movementwithin the frameworkof new social movements,see also Silvia Kontos, "Modernisierungder Subsumtionspolitik?Die Frauenbewegungin den Theorienneuer sozialerBewegungen," Feministische Studien 2 (1986): 34-49.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:42:29 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions HeideSchliipmann 71 genderdifference. Negt and Kluge'sbook playedinto the need foruni- tyin thewomen's movement when it ascertained a senseof coherence withinthe spectrum of the"post-60s" movements. But it also contributed to a tendencyto minimalizethe all-roundlatent conflicts, and thusto evade a politicaldiscourse on sexualpolitics which would have presenteda challengenot only to theold leftand thenew movements, but to the proponentsof matriarchyas well. Kluge subsequentlyelaborated the concept of femininity,which playsonly a minorrole in PublicSphere and Experience, in his 1975 book Part-TimeWork of a DomesticSlave: Toward A RealisticMethod [Gelegenheits- arbeiteiner Sklavin: Zur realistischen Methode]. This discussionis not only indebtedto Marxiansocial theory,but also documentsKluges relationshipto CriticalTheory, and to Max Horkheimerin particular.My intentionin thefollowing discussion will be to throwlight on Kluge's relationshipto CriticalTheory by examining his emancipatory concept of femininityas productiveforce. In doing so, I will referonly to Kluge'stheoretical writings and not to his storiesor films,in whichhe presentsthis thematic more complexly.While Klugeforegrounds the femaleprotagonists in his films,women play a muchmore peripheral role in his theoreticalwritings, with the exception of Part-Time Work of a DomesticSlave. ByKluge's own admission, this book developedas a reactionto criticism fromthe women's movementwhich the filmof the same name provokedupon itsrelease. Here as well,however, his theoreticalcom- ing-to-termswith the situationof women and the problemof emanci- pationoccupies a comparativelynarrow space: alongwith reprints of a list of textsand scriptoutlines, the book includesan elucidationof "Roswitha'sagenda" (Roswithais thefilm's protagonist) as a response to the criticismleveled againstthe film.In this section,Kluge commentson, among otherthings, the film'sabortion scene. Amongthe "Commentson the OppositionalConcept of Realism" thatcomprise theaddenda to thefilm section, one textaddresses the topic of the "In- terestin the Woman's Film: Contextof the Social Mode of Produc- tion." Nonetheless,the effect of thiswork on thewomen's movement at thetime - at leastinsofar as thiseffect was mirroredin thecultural and academicwomen's scene - was great:it became a canonicaltext forreading and discussiongroups. A passagefrom Public Sphere and Experience forms the point of departure for the discussion of femininityas "productive force" in Part-Time

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Workofa DomesticSlave. This passage consistsof excerptsfrom the section on "PrimarySocialization as the Formation of the ExperientialCapaci- ty." It is here in a footnotethat the concept of a female productiveforce firstappears in Kluge's work.This concept is takenup again in the early 1980sin Historyand Obstinacy/Autonomy [Geschichte undEigensinn, 1981], also co-authoredby Kluge and Negt,in a sectionentitled "The partplayed by female labor in human production." This section primarilydocuments the fact that the authors have incorporated the work of Claude Meillassoux and withhim are expanding the Marxisthorizon of historical observation.I will not pursue this point in any greaterdetail here. In examining the positions Kluge outlines on the "women's question" in these pieces, the followingpoints stand out: 1. Kluge never differentiatesbetween femininityand "motherliness" (Miitterlichkeit);he considers the entireproblematic of feminineproduc- tiveforce and social existence only fromthe perspectiveof the mother/ child relationship. 2. Kluge subordinates the question of women's emancipation to the Marxistcategories of productiveforce, relations of production,and class. 3. Femininityand sexual differenceare never mentioned in discussions of the public sphere, the productive force of fantasy,or the productive force of the spectator in cinema. 4. Kluge oftenemphasizes thatthe categories"feminine" and "masculine" do not ultimatelyclassify persons, but rathercontribute, in accordance with a natural bisexuality,to an analysis of qualities that are present in varyingdegrees in every human being. I would like to quote the footnotefrom Public Sphere and Experienceon femininityas productive force in its entirety,because it delineates the scope of Kluge's theorizing on the "women's question":

In theforms of interactionthat define the successful mother/child relationship,a mode of productionis maintainedwhich can be viewedas the residueof a matriarchalmeans of production.It is incorrectto attributeit solelyto hormonalprocesses, to a "mater- nal instinct"in merelybiological terms. It is much morethe case here thata femalemeans of productionwhich is aimed at thesat- isfactionof needs ("handling the child in accordance with its capacities,satisfying its needs at anycost") is vindicatedin opposition to the patriarchaland capitalisticworld surrounding it. This mode of productionis absolutelysuperior to the mechanismsof thatworld, but is isolated fromthe degree of socializationof

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overallsocial communication.The superiority ofthis mode of production legitimateswomen's claim to emancipation: it makes use, howeverop- pressedand deformed,of experiences within a superiormode of productionif only it is able to graspsociety in itsentirety.3

Kluge appropriateshere the fundamentalideas of Max Horkheimer's 1936 essay"Authority and Family"- an essaywhich Kluge also cites in his textvis-a-vis the question of the "double character"of thefamily.4According to Horkheimer,the bourgeoisfamily is not only the agentof submissionto social domination,but it is also the siteof humanity,even containingthe potentialfor resistance.It owes this emancipatorypotential to thework of women, for it still contains a residue of matriarchy.Where Horkheimer - along with Hegel - speaks of the"principle of love forthe whole human being," Kluge speaks of the mode of productionthat is aimed at the satisfactionof needs by means of concrete,actual use values. BothHorkheimer and Klugesee thefeminine potential in thefamily as alwaysalready restricted, above all because thewoman is exclusively fixatedon thewelfare of thefamily members, which is politicallycon- servativein itseffect. In addition,Horkheimer refers to the"chains" of monogamy, and to the factthat even in the - to quote Kluge - "suc- cessfulmother/child relationship," the child neverlearns to see the mother(i.e., the woman) in herconcrete existence as a socialand sexual being. Kluge does not extrapolatea realityfor women otherthan thatof themother/child relationship. He onlypoints out the "double oppression"that the woman experienceswithin this relationship: her generalsocial oppression,and theoppression specific to herexistence forthe child.5 In spiteof these limitations, however, Horkheimer and Klugemain- tainthat the femininepotential of thefamily allows it to transcendits statusquo, whichHorkheimer designates as the "inadequacyof love in its bourgeoisform" - a topos of bourgeoisliterature.6 Kluge, on

3. OskarNegt and AlexanderKluge, Offentlichkeit undErfahrung: Zur Organisationsan- alysevon biirgerlicher undproletarischer Offentlichkeit (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1971) 50; emphasis added. 4. Max Horkheimer,"Autoritit und Familie,"Studien iiber Autoritdt und Familie (Par- is, 1936); also in Horkheimer,Kritische Theorie (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1968) 277-360. 5. Cf. Oskar Negt and Alexander Kluge, Geschichteund Eigensinn(Frankfurt: Zweitausendeins,1981) 312. 6. Horkheimer357.

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the contrary,perceives a discrepancybetween the superiorityof the femininemode of productionand the relationsof productionwhich separatethis production from the public sphereas something"private" and preventit frombecoming socially valid. It is apparent,however, that Horkheimer's concept of the feminine potentialwithin the family is at base affirmative,not critical;he derives theutopian element from a projection.The factthat woman must maintaina different,retarded, earlier level of socializationwithin capitalism, in thatshe producesand reproducesthe requisite humanity, can be read in thephilosophy of thebourgeois revolution (Rousseau). Horkheimer celebrates,in itsdisintegration, nothing more than the function imposed on woman in theestablishment of the bourgeoisfamily. In thewritings of Rousseauwe see in beautifulclarity how littlema- triarchyand how muchpatriarchal violence determine this role. Rous- seau's philosophyallows us to look furtherinto the organizational structureof the familyand capitalistsociety (the privateand public sphere)than does Horkheimer'spiece on authorityand the family. Rousseau'swritings make clear that the discussion of the emancipatory potentialof femininity cannot begin with the woman's role in thefamily,for the actual problematic is locatedprior to this,in theappropria- tion of the sexual relationshipand femalesexuality by society.The separatedspheres of the privateand the public,without which bourgeois societywould not be able to function,are constitutedby means of thefunctionalization of thesexual relationship,which is thusalien- ated fromits own reality.Specifically, female sexuality, bound by its obligationto reproducethe species and to themale capacityfor love, is withheldfrom woman's experience. Horkheimer'semphasis on the "erotic rebellion" intimatesthat what is reallyat stake is the emancipationof relationsbetween the sexes and theemancipation of woman as a subjectand a sexualbeing. But onlya perspectivetranscending the family - a perspectiveHork- heimernever reaches - could differentiatethis from a romanticizing of the capacityfor love attributedto women. Kluge apparentlyavoids thisromanticization by elidingthe eroticaltogether, speaking instead in a soberingtone of a femaleproductive force that stands in oppositionto relationsof production. In so doing,he on theone hand comes closerto the problemof the separationof theprivate and public,but on theother overlays this separation with Marxist categories. In theen- tirePublic Sphere and Experience,Kluge fails to mentionsexual difference,

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femininity,or theemancipation of woman exceptin thefootnote cited above, whichbelongs to the chapteron socializationwithin the bourgeoisfamily. Yet he managesto devoteone sectionof comments in the addenda to the public sphereof children. What Kluge (alongwith Negt) neglects in PublicSphere and Experience, namely,any reflection on thequestion of woman's emancipation, he in- tendsto addressin Part-TimeWork of a DomesticSlave. Within the frameworkof thisemancipatory interest, he attemptsto interpretthe contradictionbetween the private and publicin thelives of women as one be- tweenfemale productive force and patriarchal/capitalisticrelations of production.Women possess the most important object of production in society:the commodityof labor power.Their laboring to producehu- man beings,not things,thus always retains a "human response":"The productiveforce of women so determinedwould have to be emanci- patoryin and ofitself."7 Why does itnot, then, have an emancipatoryef- fect?Kluge provides the answer:"The reasonfor this is the relationof production,within which the productive forces of woman are expressed. Her productiveforce is defeatedby its privateness."8 What this means is thatwomen develop strengths which are consideredweaknesses by the dominantreality principle. While the critics,and women especially, called Kluge to taskfor the simple-mindednessof the politicalactions representedby RoswithaBronski, the protagonistof the film The OccasionalWork of a DomesticSlave, he firmlymaintained that he had been concernedwith representing specifically female capacities. Accordingto Kluge,the contradiction between woman's productive forceand the relationsof productionhas assumed in currentsociety the formof a contradictionbetween actual strengthsand the public recognitionof thesestrengths as weaknesses.Thus Kluge elevatesthe themeof emancipationfrom the narrowerMarxist model of revolu- tionarychange and ultimatelymarks it as a questionof the modifica- tion of the public sphere.In otherwords, women will breakfree of theirconservatism when they develop an altered consciousnessof themselveswhich refuses to validatethe dominantreality principle. Klugehas describedthis problem elsewhere in PublicSphere and Expe- rienceas one of the productiveforce of fantasy.9Fantasy - "in reality

7. AlexanderKluge, GelegenheitsarbeiteinerSklavin: Zur realistischenMethode (Frank- furt:Suhrkamp, 1975) 185. 8. Kluge,Gelegenheitsarbeit 184. 9. Negt and Kluge,Offentlichkeit 66-74; thissection has been translatedby Peter Labanyi;in October46 (Fall 1988): 76-80.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:42:29 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 76 Femininityas ProductiveForce themost important form of human labor"' - existsin currentsociety onlyin splitparts. One partis functionalizedas a bondingmedium to fixatehuman beings on the statusquo as "the best of all possible worlds";the other part is excludedas unrealistic,discredited as "mere fantasy,"and permittedonly within the reserves of "art,beautiful feelings[schline Gefiihle], the family, leisure time."" Fantasyis not available foruse as a mediatingforce between the drivestructure, consciousness, and the externalworld. Kluge drawsa connectionbetween the problemof a "confined"(kaserniert) fantasy and the emancipationof the worker,but failsto draw a similarconnection between confined fantasyand theemancipation of women. Indeed, consideringthat his conceptof fantasyis groundedin psychoanalysis,it is noteworthythat the realityof sex and sexual differencehas eluded him. The thematicof the "interestin women's films"that Kluge finally promisesto addressin one of his commentson the"antagonistic concept of realism" (in Part-TimeWork of a DomesticSlave) circumscribes preciselythis problem of how to liberatethe force of fantasy of women and about women. However, our expectationsare disappointed: Klugeagain returns to on thetotal "context of social modes ofproduction."He hopes fora "transformationof socialrelations" based on the interactionbetween the maternalmode of productionand that of workers,farmers, etc. This hope also resultsin thedemand, expressed in a footnote,for cooperation between filmmakers, political film or- ganizations,and women'sgroups. There is nothingelse in thissection directlyrelated to the"interest in women'sfilms." Kluge rightly speculates that"any one of thesemodes of production,any class in itself, does not possess the keyfor its emancipation,"but nonetheless,he again bypassesthe question of the emancipationof woman's (self-) consciousnessand the role playedby cinemain thisprocess. In what follows,he analyzesthe "blockages" of the emancipatory forcesof women who "don't workfor wages." Women who are active in thework force are neverspecifically discussed in thiscontext since, as posited in Historyand Obstinacy/Autonomy,job training is not "class- specificto the female class."'2 Perhaps the representationof these

10. AlexanderKluge, "Marktstrukturund Bediirfnis,"in Michael Dost, Florian Hopf, and Alexander Kluge, Filmwirtschaftin der BRD und in Europa: Gditterdiimmerungin Raten(Munich: Hanser, 1973) 75. 11. Kluge,"Marktstruktur" 75. 12. Negt and Kluge,Geschichte 320.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:42:29 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Heide Schliipmann 77 blockagesdoes sound plausibleif one proceedsfrom the assumption thatwoman representsa productivesocial forceonly as a mother. Only thendoes it seem reasonablethat she mustmaintain her "sub- dominantcontext of productionand meaning,"even ifthis "mainte- nancein turnis thecondition of possibility for the oppression of women."'3sAnd the listof oppressionsthat Kluge drawsup - in the first place, her oppressionby man - is a long one. Kluge analysesthese pointby point,focusing on possiblecounterforces which form within them,in order to returnin the end to his point of departure:the oppositionalpotential of women is blockedin such a waythat it can be organizedonly in interactionwith other modes of production:

thedegree of complexity ofthe oppositional formation against op- pressionis alsothere in all othermodes of production; that of the intelligence,that of the small businessman, those of the workers, thefarmers. But because of the multiple program of the productiveforce of women and their oppression, this is themost pointed provocationfor a realistmethodology. And, therefore, for the thesisthat all of the various oppressed social modes of production al- ternatelylearn from each other.14

Thus it becomes increasinglyobvious thatwhat matters for Kluge in women'sfilms is not women's cinemain general,but whatthe vision of femininitycan contributeto his own work. Moreover,the ability to representfemininity in Kluge'sfilms seems to be blockedprimarily by the factthat he reducesthe questionof the emancipationof women to thefigure of woman herself, to thefigure of themultiply oppressed woman, in orderto subsequentlybring her into hisdiscussion of the problem of the emancipation of the other "classes." In otherwords, he separatesthe themeof femininityas a productive forcefrom that of the relationship between the sexes, and thatof sexuali- tywithin society, and neverreunites them. However, in thisconnection lies theelement common to a critiqueof femininityand to a critiqueof thebourgeois public sphere (in itsseparation of the private and public), as wellas to a critiqueof a confinedfantasy and mainstreamcinema. The factthat the problem of femininity also pertainsto men is at once acknowledgedand closedoff by Klugewith his referenceto bisexuality.

13. Kluge,Gelegenheitsarbeit 229. 14. Kluge, Gelegenheitsarbeit241.

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Althoughsocially determined, femininity and masculinityhave become second natureto such an extentthat the discussionof interchangeable attributesonly veils the social violence that forces individuals to identify withgender positions. It is notHorkheimer's essay on authorityand the family,but theDialectic of Enlightenment thatcontains the most advanced insightsof CriticalTheory into the fusion of gender and power,display- ingthe oppression of woman in itstruly abysmal dimension." Dialectic of Enlightenmentmaps out howthe bourgeois project of emancipation from nature,realized as thedomination of nature,necessarily fails. Thus the idea of theemancipation from nature was not resolvedand, underthe signof enlightenment,was also takenup bythe radical women's movement- togetherwith the insight, however, that it can onlysucceed if it is simultaneouslythe emancipation of nature. But, for women, emancipationfrom nature means not allowing themselves to be definedin terms of motherhood,even in theform of "social motherhood." In conclusion,Kluge's reception of CriticalTheory (at leastas it pertainsto theconcept of femininityas productiveforce) is one-sided;it is based on thosepassages in Horkheimer's"Authority and the Family" whichlook backnostalgically to theearly bourgeoisie. This corresponds to Kluge'sconcept, expressed in relationto otherareas such as television, of releasingproductive forces through the reactivation of qualitiesexist- ingduring the manufactorial stage of capitalism. Kluge completely disre- gardsthe dimensionof theDialectic of Enlightenment in Critical Theory, and insteadonce again affirmsMarxist categories at theexpense of the Nietzscheaninfluence in thework of Adorno and Horkheimer.Perhaps itis preciselythis relationship with Critical Theory that allows Kluge the filmmakerto remainimmune to the rigoroustendencies in Adorno's critique of the "culture industry."Instead, Kluge contraststhese tendencieswith the memory of an early,precapitalist cinema, under the coverof whichhe is able, withfeigned naivet&, to move productively withinthe media of filmand television.

TranslatedbyJamie Owen Daniel

15. Max Horkheimerand Theodor Adorno,Dialectic of Enlightenment, trans. John Cumming(New York:Seabury, 1969).

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GertrudKoch

AlexanderKluge attaches much greaterimportance to musicas an autonomous aestheticelement in the overallmontage construction thando otherdirectors who workpredominantly with the possibilities affordedby montage. Operatic motifs played through many of Kluge's filmswell before opera itselfbecame a motif.Verdi, Bizet and Wagner, dismantledinto minimalizedparts, run like a threadof sound frag- mentsthrough his films,as do popular hits,male choirs,humming, warbling,tangos, marches and othermusical material.The musical motifssuffer the same fateat Kluge'shands as do the imagesand the script:they are a collector'sspoils, often stripped down so as to bear theburden of thevisual and verbalmaterial. In his printedwork, mu- sicalmotifs tend to cropup in theform of sheet music, scraps of larger scores.Thus, thestories in theLearning Processes with a DeadlyEnding finish witha Schubertlied printedwhite on black.' It containsthe mes- sage thatresearchers have burned intothe forestsof a distantplanet with chemical weapons and can now decipher with a telescope: l'Aurore,the firstflush of dawn, the hymnof the planetof the same name. For Kluge,musical motifs are not illustrativeconveyors of atmosphere;rather, like words and images,they are signsof a social experiencethat has congealedin the subject.

Spitzname:Carmen This is thetitle of a shortstory in Kluge'sbook, ThePower of Emotion. The storyconcerns Friedrich Karmecke, chief editor of the politics

1. AlexanderKluge, Lernprozesse mit t6dlichem Ausgang (Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 1973), last page (n.p.).

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On variousseparate occasions, Karmecke had in his younger years repeatedlyand in different locations engaged in extramarital sexual congress,which this morning he couldremember only sleepily. Allthese experiences together amount to his Carmen. Itis hisexpe- rienceof venturing beyond the limits; the rest is office.2

Carmen as shorthandfor exogamy.In his famous essay on Bizet's Carmen,Adorno offers an interpretationof what in Kluge'swork func- tionsto condensethe concrete experience of a definite,if ideal-typical case. Adornoviews it as the universallapse of sexualityinto a natural state,in the courseof which sexuality gains its freedom by refusingto conformto societalnorms: "The fatethat holds swaythere and that holdsup nothinghuman is sexualityitself, in itsante-diluvian and pre- intellectualform."3 Where Adorno follows in Nietzsche'stracks, Kluge clearlyinjects practical meaning. The opera,above all itsmusic, which forAdorno still contained something of the history of human beings as naturalbeings (as he sees being performedin Carmen)is translated backin Kluge'sshort prose piece intothe opposition between "ventur- ingbeyond the limits" [Grenziiberschreitung] and "office" [Amt]. Sexuality becomes"extramarital intercourse," and theexogamy of the 19thcen- turyopera world is transformedinto an imperialtransgression, a "ven- turingbeyond the limits." "Carmenis also one ofthose operas about exogamy, a serieswhich extends fromThe Jewess and via Aida, and to L'Afriiaine Lamke Butterfly Berg's Lulu- eulogiesto an escapefrom civilization."4 Kluge refers to thispas- sageby Adorno in one ofhis television broadcasts which focuses on pre- sentingthe historyof opera as a sortof social historyof humanemo- tions.In thesebrief thirty-minute montage films produced for the pri- vatenetworks, Kluge proposes a differentway of readingopera history and the storiesthat operas tell.While "Spitzname:Carmen" summa- rizesthe referential presence of opera mythologyin theeveryday inter- pretationsof itsrecipients, his operaclips move along a varietyof paths

2. Kluge,Die Machtder Gefiihle (Frankfurt: Zweitausendeins, 1984) 346. 3. Theodor W. Adorno,"Fantasia sopra Carmen,"Gesammelte Schriften 16 (Frank- furt/Main:Suhrkamp, 1978) 305. 4. Adorno 299.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:42:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions GertrudKoch 81 to approachthe main goal: thedisarming of thefifth act, in whichthe dramaturgyof traditionalopera was wontto have the heroinedie. One of thesetelevision experiments bears the title L'Africaine; or,Love witha FatalEnding. In it Klugehas Sabine Trooger,the announcer, say the following:

A famousfilm director, returning from work on locationabroad, andat a momentwhen his life's work seemed threatened, decided to father110 children in theThird World in orderto, as itwere, havea lifeafter death. At the low cost levels of those nations. The attemptfailed. Thiscorresponds to a keynotion underlying numerous operas of the19th century. Western men become infatuated with exotic for- eignwomen, as theanalyst Theodor W. Adornoputs it, seduce themand thenreturn home. The exoticwomen die ofsuch love. The operas insiston thisfatal conclusion. Adorno mentions Halkvy'sThe Jewess, Giacomo Meyerbeer'sL'Africaine, Giacomo Puccini'sMadame Butterfly, Richard Wagner's Kundry [from Parsi- fal],the exoticCarmen, the Inca son in ThePower of Fate, the earth spiritLulu. We would add: the slave Helen in Quo vadis,Gone with theWind, The Ice-cold Angel, etc., etc.5

This sequence,which follows on theheels of the passage from Adorno alreadycited, moves smoothly from the 19th-centuryopera into20th- centuryfilm history, specifically from mammoth spectacles via the melodramato the Frenchfilm noir of the sixties.One of the well- knowntheses in Adorno and Horkheimer'schapter on the "Culture Industry" in TheDialectic of Enlightenment is that Wagner's notion of a Gesamtkunstwerkwas at once consummatedand destroyedby film- and it is thisthesis that Kluge invokeshere. Apartfrom this trajectory, however, Kluge believes that opera and film correspondto differentneeds: whereas opera invokesthe Feelingfor ir- reparabletragedy, the majorityof filmsimagine themselves obliged to offera happyending. In bothcases, love gets left somewhere on theway- side. Klugeby no meansaccepts the compulsion to closurewhich links opera withnarrative film in dramaturgicalterms. As in his storiesand films,Kluge approachesopera by means of a consistentpolicy of minimalizationand atomization.He selectsdetails from the plot or the

5. Kluge,"Ein imaginarerOpernffihrer,"Jahrbuch derHamburgischen Staatsoper 1984- 88 (Hamburg:Intendanz der HamburgischenStaatsoper, 1988) 15.

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musicand attemptsto radicalizetheir intrinsic logic to sucha pointthat theyultimately explode theoverall architecture of the closed artwork. He thustakes stock of Madame Butterfly, a colonialist drama, by means ofimages of waiting, images that culminate for Madame Butterflyin her death.Using black-and-white footage - withdetails from Japanese gar- dens whichhe projectsonto a stagein an pmptytheatre - he stresses preciselythe mythologizedsigns of an essentialized,Western "Japan": thebamboo cane,the graphic lines of twigs, Mount Fuji, etc. Yet at the same time,this limited quality of the signs implies the death of the person: exoticismas a fantasywhich is carefullysheltered from real life - a lifeof appearances. Klugesums up the itemsin his "imaginaryguide to theopera" in a mannerreminiscient of ideology critique, though he givesthem a different direction:rather than unmasking mythologies as delusions,he assumes the attitudeof a quasi-naiveobserver. The latterposes tough questionsas to the probabilityof thatwhich opera's illusionaryspace evokes.Thus Klugeallows his imaginationfree rein with respect to the protagonists'motivations: why does all actionat a particularjuncture in an opera appear to be connectedto a powerfullyeffective destiny? or whatare theblindspots in theactors' minds and motiveswhich result in theirbecoming unpredictable sexual offenders at theheight of enlight- ened civilsociety? A ten-pagetext in ThePower of Emotion entitled "The Police Chiefis Dead . . . " is undoubtedlythe mostbizarre of Kluge'ssupplemented opera plots.In thistext, he narratesScarpia's murder by Tosca froma widevariety of perspectives which, on theone hand,trace the inevitabili- tyof his death with painstaking attention to detailand, on theother, create an altogetherunusual picture of PoliceChief Scarpia. Kluge's inter- pretationtakes as itsleitmotif the musical motif that Puccini had assigned to the police chief'sappearance:

Threethunderous harmonies from the orchestra (in B-major,A- majorand E-major, loud, almost brutal) form the leitmotif for the blackguardScarpia, somewhat preempting the violent action to fol- low.(The conductor Ferenc Fricsay believed he couldrecognize in themthe "blinding glare of the midday sun in Rome.")6

Kluge'spassage on "Scarpiaas malebody" seems to me significantwith

6. Kluge, Die Machtder Geflihle446; trans. in this issue.

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respectto the qualities and idiosyncraciesof Kluge's oeuvre. He may ad- mittedlyshare the opinion thatopera concerns itselfwith emotive states and worlds thathave been suppressed by civilizationand which simultaneously create and express "discontent in culture"; yet in the strictest sense he would reject the antipodal division of nature and history,of drivesand culture.Allow me to quote at somewhat greaterlength from this passage, on which I shall laterelaborate. The textbegins with a de- scriptionof Scarpia's physicalcondition beforegetting up in the morning, namely that he sullenlyand unwillinglyfinds himselffaced by the factthat on this particularmorning his erectpenis confrontshim as ifit were somethingforeign and troublesome,"but he cannot cut it offin the same way thathe can close one of his securitydepartments or give or forget orders to subordinates."'7In order to extricatehimself from the pre- dicament he thinksof blackmailingTosca, clearlynot with any porno- graphic intentbut so as to reestablish.theharmony betwen himselfand his own social contextby thinkingof the social degradationof thisdivine singer."The next day," Kluge's textreturns to the passage in the opera:

The nextday, however, what he withgood reasonhad deniedhim- selfgets in hisway once he has Tosca lockedin hisofficial chambers and talksto herinsistently, which brings him in physicalproximity to her.She kneelsbefore him so thathe, circlingaround her in thisdi- vineposture, ends up behindher back [... .]. He shovesher slightly so thatshe fallsforward into a positionthe spies had occasionallyem- broideredupon in theirreports and whichhe, had histrousers been unbuttonedin themeanwhile and had sheremained still, could have exploitedin a primordialmanner as ifhe werea goator a hare,or a Frenchsoldier during a lullin thefighting and so forth.Instead, the penisstuck in histrousers becomes smeared at thetip with a fluid- notsperm and noturine, rather a lubricant;but it fails to makeany- thingglide through the silk trousers, which are difficultto open, so thatScarpia, annoyed with this brazen autonomy,no longerfeels thediva's magic and loses his desireas ifit miscarried.As a consequence, he proceedswith the blackmail,this deceitful seduction - not because he hopes to gain some eroticadvantage over the diva,but ratherin orderto get his mind to prevail,which, since the earlymorning, had been at odds withhis penis.8

What is remarkablein this fantasywhich supplementsthe established

7. Macht 450. 8. Macht 451.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:42:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 84 Kluge'sPhantom of the Opera lishedplot of the opera is theway the descriptionis almostscientific, drawingits comic effectfrom the familiar device of thefailure of me- chanicalprocesses. With an eyetrained in experimentationin thenat- ural sciences,the painstakingmethod of the empiricaldescription of physical-materialprocesses in the case of this "male body" corresponds to a certaindeictic tendency in Kluge'swritings, an inclination to use exemplarydemonstration which is depictedand/or surfaces in hisfilms as thecommentator's voice, as intertitles,as statementsby ex- pertsand otherdevices. The assertionimplicit in the opera, thatit is concernedwith passions and all itsvarious forms, that Scarpia desires Tosca, the divinesinger, and thatthe opera in turnclaims that she is desirable- it is thisprecondition which allows opera dramaturgyto switchon "a power stationof emotions" that Kluge subjectsto a dialecticalcritique. He takesthe assertionthat opera has to do with passionsseriously in orderto then,in a second step,define that passion in termsof itssexual core,quite in keepingwith Adorno's intentions. Where he does so, however,he also shows - not withouta mockingundertone - thatthe passion opera demandsis alwaysone thathas been deprivedof precisely this sexual core. Scarpia's desire for Tosca is the sheerwill to power:the chiefof police blackmailsthe divine diva; sexualityonly disturbedhim in the act. At the moment, however,when the passion is robbed of itssexual core,it collapsesby itself.Hence Kluge summarizes:

Thisis howhe died,without having the original reason at his disposal thatoutside observers would have ascribed to hisactions. Even withoutTosca's knife, he wouldnot have reached his objective in theaffair. In fact,it was never actually his objective, rather there were objectivesin the affair that disintegrated into different situations as soonas theyneared practical realization. He hadalready felt the catastrophecoming that morning. Ifhe hadn'tdied in this adventure, he wouldhave disgraced himself with impotence.9

Yet Klugedoes notlimit himself to reconstructingand supplementing the internalmechanisms of external,theatrical events from the perspectiveof an omniscientobserver and demiurge:he also inventsun- realized possibilitiesfor the charactersinvolved in the action.Opera thusbecomes for him a pile of ruinsleft by thefatalistic course of the story,which he sets out to rearrange. Once exploded into atomized

9. Macht 451f.

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details - ruins - the power of fate dissipates, as does the efficacyof any narrativeclosure. He can now hunt for ways-outand give recom- mendations. Like the deusex machina,whose functionin Baroque opera was to ensure with pleasing regularitythat the prescribed good and harmonic end was afterall achieved, so Kluge too descends upon the smashed remnants of the opera in order to expose as misdirected determinismthe now openly visible mechanism as it runs on empty. It is above all the short form of the television operas that is best suited to such atomized portrayal,and Kluge groups these miniatures ironicallyunder the heading of an "imaginary guide to the opera":

Accordingto [thisguide], a modernopera now,at theend of the 20thcentury, would not consistof an imitationof thegreat opera repertoires.The searchfor the needle in TheMarriage of Figaro - and thedesperation at notfinding it - sufficesas a sketchfor opera material.The sum of such materialcould fillmany evenings: yeteach singlesketch could be as shortas the"moments musicaux." It is enoughfor such a momentto "flareup." Thereis no need for a temporalbuild-up.'0

The explosive elements which Kluge extricatesfrom the operas are clearlynot those of an unbound sexus, of natural images of a utopia of reconciliation: the cover of ThePower of Emotion shows a single photograph of an air force squadron flyingin combat formation,and it is no coincidence that the volume not only contains the script of an opera filmof the same titlebut a wealth of criticalmilitary writings as well. In his briefpreface, the writerand filmmakersketches his project:

The powerof fate: the name ofan operawhich would fit almost all operas. But it remainsdoubtful whether there really is such a thingas fate.Perhaps there are onlya hundredthousand different causes whichare calledfate after the event[ . . . My lastfilm was entitledThe Power of Emotion. There really is such a power,and thereare also realemotions. Warposes the greatestchallenge to emotions.And incidentallyit comprisesthe greatestchallenge facing all power-basedprojects forsuch a timeas it can provethat no powercan hold it in check; and historicallyhitherto no powerhas been able to arrestit. I wish to tell storiesof whyemotions are not powerless."

10. Kluge,"Ein imaginairerOpernfiihrer" 20. 11. Kluge,Macht, preface (n.p.)

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Klugethus posits emotions as diametricallyopposed to war,yet at the same time,this initial comment on the powerof emotionis so clearly embeddedin thepolitical discourse of WestGermany that the abstract oppositionis mediatedthrough particular associations. "Fate": the name used in the public or semi-publicconsciousness above all to describe war- insteadof investigating the causes for war, one preferredto invoke thepower of fate that manifested itself in war.When Klugedeploys the formulaof the necessary "disarmament of the fifth act," this only makes sense againstthe backgroundof such a covertcross-connection which forgesa linkbetween the poles of emotion and war,despite their abstract juxtaposition.Opera is highlysuspect in Kluge'seyes because it touches on the factthat the greatestpassions - whichcan become thatfate whichdecides life and death- can,in theform of a masspsychosis, also becomethe basis for crusades of annihilation,just as in theshape ofan individualpsychosis they can linksexual murder with death out oflove. The clinicaldescriptions Kluge gives of the sexual processesthat com- prise the explosivecore of emotionsare not just a means of ironic distantiation,a travesty of language,but also theexpression of a deep- seatedfear, an overwhelmingdistrust of the power of seduction, a power thatmust be disarmed. Construingfate as ineluctable,as metaphysicallypreordained, denies thepossibility of freelydetermined action. Interestingly enough, at this junctureKluge swerves away from Adorno toward Nietzsche. To return once moreto thename of Carmen: with regard to Bizet'sopera, Adorno sawthe very degeneration to a naturalstate as theredemption of sexuality,and Carmenis compelledto followthat sexuality as ifit were a cate- goricalimperative, thus passing into the realm of freedom: "Her song," "is no of butthe answerto fate ."12 Adornowrites, song fate, subject's .... Kluge by no means sharesthe figureof redemptivecritique which Adornodevelops in hisanalysis of Bizet's Carmen. Rather, he seemsto be indebtedto thatremark of Nietzsche'swhich Adorno citescritically when averringthat its authorremained "entrenched" in "fatalism": "Love,whose methods are thoseof war and whichis foundedupon the deadly hatredbetween the sexes!"'3For Kluge,this is what opera is about;and itis at thisthat he levelshis critique. The intertwiningofemo- tionsand war becomesthe decisive metaphor on whosewings a whole spectrumof associations is borneinto battle. Kluge's critique of opera is

12. Adomo 303. 13. Adomo 305.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:42:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions GertrudKoch 87 at hearta critiqueof Wagner'sGesamtkunstwerk, including his mystifica- tionof deathdressed up as metaphysics. For Kluge,combatting the power of fate means above all exposingthe causesthat hide behind its mighty, flowing flag. Of what did Scarpiareal- ly die? Fate forKluge is nothingbut thejamming together of motives thatremain opaque, thatmutually paralyze each otherand hence explode in a fatalending. Thus, in operathe deaths are bothutterly deter- minedand well-foundedand yetcompletely unfounded, for the charac- tersdo notsee throughtheir own paradoxes. What they lack is a practical sense,a shotof pragmatismwith which they could finda way out. It would be wrong,however, to suggestthat Kluge's opera performances could be summedup in the simplisticterms of ideologycritique. The drafts,with their multiperspectival solutions, their theatrical-scenic re- hearsalof action (which sometimes takes the form of court proceedings) implicitlycontain a stubborn,idiosyncratic utopian core: the wish to re- versethe course of action, to givein to thechild's impulse to savePunch frombeing arrested by shoutingout a warningto him.Kluge's film aes- theticsreveal with exceptional clarity a certaincompulsion to repeat; thereis hardlya motifthat does not cropup againin some othersitua- tion,that is nottried out, rehearsed once more,rearranged, and illumi- natedanew by differentcontexts. If one takesthis aesthetic, formal mo- mentseriously, one can interpretitas theexact counter-program toopera seria- the serial opera which dispersesits motifsin a wealth of situationalpossibilities. Atfirst sight, such an antipatheticagenda would appear to be comple- telycontrary to thenature of opera. For it is no coincidencethat opera - which,if it is robbedof itspathos by irony,immediately flips over into the comical - has become the favoriteobject of all travestiesand impersonators.What is the reasonfor Kluge's vehement attack on opera's blindbelief, its alliance with death? I have alreadybriefly outlined thatKluge's rejection of the pathos of fate and passionstems from social experiencesthat cannot be seenin isolationfrom German history. Kluge is therepresentative ofan interimgeneration who had theirchildhood under NationalSocialism and theirintellectual socialization in the Federal Republic.For thisgeneration, the experienceof chainsof events- in whichculpable action was bothlived through and whitewashed- as fate- fulinvolvement would seem to be a crucialissue. The wishto redressacts ofinjustice must have been as overpoweringas thediffuse experiences of omnipotenceand impotencein the war. The endless chain of attemptsto bring the dead of opera dramatics back to life (the film, The Powerof

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Emotion,also devotesits last section to theeffort to resuscitatea murder victim)contains a factualutopian core: namely, the non-acceptance of death. Kluge'scompulsion to representthe really major emotions as precisely thosewhich border on deceittakes on a burlesqueform in histelevision opera TheFirst 140 Barsof the "Valkyrie". In an interview,Kluge doggedly questionsconductor Michael Gielen on theabove 140bars of the "Valkyr- ie." In the courseof his musicologicalanalysis, and at Kluge'srequest, Gielenalso goes intothe practice of Wagner performances and theenor- moustechnical difficulties the musicians have playing this part of the score. By dintof his intransigentquestioning, Kluge finally finds out thatsome partsare so difficultthat the musicians resort to a practicalaid - theysim- plyand quitesystematically leave some of thepassages out, reducing the Wagnerianopulence to a humanlymanageable measure. While already in the 1950sWieland Wagner's productions in Bayreuthundertook an im- manentdeconstruction ofWagner's mythology by concentrating the mate- rialand reducingit to thetransparency ofthe musical structures, Kluge in his minimalisticWagner critique goes one stepfurther: he attemptsto showplaces in thescore itself that oppose humanpractice. Kluge'ssmall encyclopedia of opera, his imaginaryguide to theopera, offersa critiqueof the consequencesthe 19thcentury has forthe 20th, undertakenin thespirit of the 18th century: Enlightenment as the utopian conceptionof formsof lifeand relationshipsin whichemotions do not havea fatalending but are ratheracted out and commentedon in playful scenarios.This iducationsentimentale, however, is conceivablein theFederal Republiconly as a kindof re-education.The questionas to how lifewill continuecannot be contemplatedwithout at the same time asking how life could be organizeddifferently: lifeas interconnectedaction itself becomes a utopia.This form of thought incorporates an affirmativetrait inherent in anyaffirmation of life as a program.Yet Kluge's pragmatic utopianism is relativizedvis-A-vis such apologetictrends by the historicalfoil against whichit is written- the mass murderof millionsin the 20thcentury. Againstthis backdrop, the yearning for death in great opera appears hardly lessapologetic than the yearning for a livablelife. In viewof the paradoxes ofreality, Kluge becomes a utopiangambler with the irreversibility oftime: from"once upon a time"to "ifonly I had ... !"

TranslatedbyJeremy Gaines

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Edited by MiriamHansen

Answerto TwoOpera Quotationsi I

"Vedi?di mortel'angelo. ." ("Do yousee? The angelof death. ") GiuseppeVerdi, Aida, Act IV ...

1. The unlikelypair, the Ethiopian princess and theEgyptian general (re- movedfrom office), are buriedalive because of their love. They are con- sideredtraitors. Radames, though still accompanied by deputies, is now alone (or so he thinks)in thatdungeon under the Temple of Vulcan. Aida,in contrast,snuck in byherself; she is hereof her own free will. She had alwaysknown that a love likethis would end withbeing walled in. Thisscene is precededby the dramatic underground trial of the reluc- tanttraitor. Radames had stubbornlyremained silent. Change of scenes. The orchestraevokes a particularmelancholic mood, set in D minor, whichVerdi uses fordeparture scenes - forthose moments immediately precedingacts of finality.Radames wonders where his loveris. Her presencewas neverso familiarto himas itis now thatshe is absent.... The musicbreaks off... a sigh.... Qualgemito? (What cry is that?).The formergeneral searches in thedarkness for the living creature that had sighed.Nervous movement in the orchestralscore. Radames has just toucheda strangebody. Even in the darknessof the tomb,he knows

1. "Antwortauf zwei Opernzitate,"Jahrbuch XI derHamburgischen Staatsoper fiir die Spielzeit1983/84 (Hamburg: Hans ChristiansVerlag, 1984): 117-130.This and all subsequent translationsare printedhere with permission of theauthor.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 90 On Opera,Film, and Feelings immediatelywho it is. He calls out in extremedespair (nella massima disparazione):"Tu, in questatomba?" ("You, in this tomb?"). He thoughtAida had been saved.This thought, his interest in herob- jectivewell-being, is a signthat he reallyloves her. He lovesher reality. Thatis whyhe is so extremelydesperate when he findsher buried alive. Aida answers:

"Myheart forewarned me Ofyour condemnation; Intothis tomb Whichwas being opened for you I mademy way by stealth, Andhere, far Fromevery human eye In yourarms I wishto die."

As a princess,she is awareof the following: it is writtenthat she sacrifice herselfbefore everyone's eyes for her lover;this act would benefitthe caste of all princessesand widows,the kingdom, the priests, the memory of thevictim, and whatevercan be redeemedfrom the latter. Sharing the destinyof her lover,however, she dies forhim alone, "farfrom every humaneye," without producing any benefit for herself or herclass: she expressesthat she really loves him. Throughout the entireopera, the lovers appear amazed, surprisedthat they love each other.Again and again theydeclare to each otherthat they (against all the laws of reality,the powersof war,class boundaries,etc.) are on firefor each other. Even now Radames is amazed: "To die! ... to die for love?" Two currentsof historycollide in the "emotionaleconomy" of thisscene. The old tale goes: sacrificeand thewish for happiness are coupled strictly together- itgoes withoutsaying that the woman can onlyexpress her loyalty,the very fact that she is a livingbeing, in such a wayas willcost her her life.Colliding with this, on the otherhand, is a certainbour- geois level-headednessin Radames: one doesn'texaggerate the bond to the pointwhere someone has to die purelyas a resultof fallingin love. That is why he is surprised,but also happy:Aida's particular formof devotion is expressedespecially clearly in themidst of this collision between values and times. "Sognodi gaudioche in dolorsvani... ." ("dream ofjoy which in sorrowfaded. .. ."). But in thisversion, the sky opens up: "A noisi schiudeil ciel .. ." ("Heaven opens forus ... ." - the word "to close" has the same root as "to open" in Italian).

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At the climaxof the lovers'dialogue, or ratherat the climaxof the two alternatingmonologues (for the loversmisunderstand each other in distinctways), Aida says:"Vedi? di mortel'angelo. .. ."

2. "Do you see? The angelof death. .. ," saysAida. Is therean angelof deathwhich Radames, too, sees at thismoment? Are there any angels of deathwhatsoever in Egypt?We knowthat there were some in themists ofGermania because Brunhilde pronounces Siegmund's death and later fetcheshim in TheValkyrie. Does theEthiopian princess cite a mythof her own countrywhich the Egyptiangeneral cannot immediately understand?Does she see anything?Or does Aida onlywant to comfortthe despairingman byclaiming to see thisangel? Is she describingherself as one? It is pitchblack in thistomb. The executionershave not set up any lightsbecause the priestsmust prevent the condemnedfrom burning himselfto death - forif he did so, his soul would not be starvedto deathalong with his body,indeed it would not even stepover into the realmof the dead; ratherit would hauntthem - in whichcase, they mightas wellhave burned themselves. At anyrate, that's why it is dark; thelovers can toucheach other,but nothingis visible.Hence, Aida can claimwith impunity that she sees something.Radames, willing to believe her,looks fora time,spellbound, in the directionhe assumesAida is pointing.He does notwant to spoilthe mood witha contradiction.Nei- therdoes sheinsist. Nor does sherepeat the question. The dead in Egypt enterthe realm of the dead via thepreparations made by the living: the dead in Egyptare thedebt to be dischargedat thehome of thecreditor, not thatof the debtor(Bringschuld, nicht Holschuld).

3. The Unpredictabilityof the Angel of Death Why,however, if there are angelsof death, do theynot help, for example,in thecase ofa mistakenverdict? One has to distinguishthe live bur- ial oftwo live lovers from the sentence that condemned only one of them. Doubtlessthere are cases moreunjust than the punishment of lovers who,after all, were pursuing an egocentric,consumerist dream of happiness,"sogno di gaudio";and behavingrather imprudently with regard to statesecrets - forwhich they now pay. In Smolensk1942, that would haveled to a rashending as well.It's anotherstory when Antigone, Oe- dipus's daughter,is walledin. Shefought for the burialof her brother and was herselfburied alive as a result;she fought for the validity ofthe old laws againstthe new despotism. No angel of death helped her. It cannot

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 92 On Opera,Film, and Feelings be, however,that angels of death remain completely insensitive to thein- justicesuffered by thedying who waitto be fetched.Thus, Brunhilde is quicklyprepared to decide the duel againstHunding; Hercules enters theunderworld in Alceste,responding to theunjust sacrifice by robbing thedead; and thusCharlemagne intervenes in thenick of timeto save theInfante in Don Carlos, etc. Angels of death, if they do exist,have in certain cases no otherchoice but to mutiny,refuse commands, employ cunning.In fact,these are actuallythe signsby whichwe recognize them.How else couldwe discernwhether or notwe are dealingwith an angelof death?After all, we don'tfollow him merely to be his witness. Bythe way, the angels originate from the same substancefrom which the oldlaws arise. The textreports nothing more specificabout the"di morte l'angelo."Here liesthe starting point for another opera - itlies in thegap ofthe text. The secretthat is waitingto be revealedis, from the perspective of the angel,the text.

ETOILErOLAIr * iTOILI POLMSui

4...

-I NAl & VA4It)LA ?YR i )EO-- Q4iEPS *jCI o 04)'o t4

Instructionsfor the transferral ofa dead personunder the supervision of the stars;according to Egyptianrite.

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The dead are not equal. On thecontrary, their different forms of accomodation(some are put into holes, othersinto pyramids) ratherconsolidate the earthlyhierarchy which in turnrepresents theonly secure connection with the cosmos. An angelof deathin the Germanictradition would be likelyto confusethis hierarchy, especiallyif he wereto displaya sense ofjustice or a personalca- pacityfor discrimination. In Ethiopia,such a thingmight have existed,but neverin Egypt.It could be the case, therefore,that Aida saw an angelof deathwhich Radamas, hard as he mayhave tried,could neverhave seen.

4. The missionof the 20th century, of which we stillhave 16 yearsahead ofus, is to tellcounter-stories to the collected stories of the 19thcentury - in themanner of thestory of Odysseus,which is of courseeither fairly old, or setin Ireland(James Joyce). To theclassical dramaturgies of plot, intensification,progress, suspense, climax, and catharsis,we oppose gravitationalforms of expression; that is, forms that develop from the laws of narrativeand musicalmaterial. This is no contradictionto the 18th century,no contradictionto Lessingor ArnoSchmidt, yet dearly one to the 19thcentury as it nestsin the mindsof the 20th.

5. Radio Broadcast fromAfar; Air Raid On 7 April1945, at 11 p.m., thereis a broadcastof Aida, I thinkon Radio Rome.We are sittingin myfather's bedroom in frontof a brown wooden set,with an illuminatedglass panel showingthe foreignsta- tions,and we listento the distortedmystery music; from far off and a littlegarbled, it conveyssomething serious which our fathersumma- rizesin briefGerman sentences. At one o'clockthe lovers are suffocat- ing.My father,a countrydoctor who knowssomething of the technical tasks of prop-masterssince he is also on call for the Halberstadt Theater,speculates on whatthe cause ofdeath might be on thethird or fifthday, on whetherRadames survives Aida or viceversa (according to medicalprobability - a doctorcan neverbe sure).They were found in thisvault, my father said, after thousands of years. Did Caesardig them out? One doesn'tknow. How werethey lying? One can imaginethis fromother pictures, namely those of Herculaneumand Pompeii.It's hard to embrace for fivedays straight;they will not have had the strengthin theirlast momentsto changetheir position in any major way. Nothing in the world is as serious as (1) a dramaticopera, which (2)

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 94 On Opera,Film, and Feelings comesto us froma greatdistance. With our bigsuper-radio in thedining room,we wouldnot have been able to receivethe distant music that this tinyforeign product managed to dispenseinto our provincial town, albeit withdistortions. Becauseit got so late,we didn'tgo to theRiibelAnder Hohlen the next day,8 April1945, although we childrenwere supposed to be evacuated therebecause of the danger of theair raids,which everyone was talking about on 7 April1945, a Saturday.Instead we have been sittingin the shelterfrom 11:20 a.m. on. Afterthe firstattack, when the lightswent out,we are lyingon thecellar floor. This actionhas nothingof theseri- ousnessthat the operatic action of Aida has. The magicof opera implies: we believein theabsurd because it containsa seriousmystery; because whatis spokenand whatremains unspoken (for example, the angel of death)is guardedas a secret,camouflaged by the work of the orchestra. Ofthe bombers, however, we onlybelieve what really happens. If they hit me, I'm dead; otherwise,I'm not.They can buryus in the cellar,but withoutdoing so, theycannot move us to considerwhat it might feel like to be buriedin the cellar,what we feellike when we thinkof the en- tombedlovers in the opera Aida.We see themas theydepart, fleeing fromthe city: in squad formation,a school of minnows in thesky. Living in the 20th century,we do not knowwhy it saysin the opera guide: "Amnerisabove thetomb sends a prayerfor peace to thesky." We find thisprayer for peace, the invocation"ciel" in manyoperas. This sky,however, is occupiedwith bomber formations; the invocation,the prayer must find another direction. Thinking of the injustice of theiraction, the scattering of bombs over rich and poor seemsinsensitive to us. We knowthat angels of death would never behave this way. The at- tackwas unnecessary.I would neverhave said to my sister,while running throughthe burning town: "Vedi?di mortel'angelo...."

6. PracticalUses of a Love Token Sittingin thedark, above herthe footsteps of thepriests and thedes- peratecalls of Amneris(who in such a conditionmakes mistakes, for whichthe Priests will send herto followthe lovers into death), Aida has, unknownto thoseabove, a ringon herlittle finger. She had stolenthis ringfrom Amneris, who has delicateEgyptian fingers, so thatthe ring, whichRadames had givenAmneris when they were still engaged, does notfit on thepaws of the muscular Aida. Now,in theface of the angel of death - perhaps she could survive three or five days in this vault,

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AlexanderKluge 95 throughlong drawn-out hours that are too shortfor living and too long fordying, but she couldn'tthink of anything more to do - she tookthe metalring from her finger, handled it, scratched signs on thecellar wall and eventuallyput the ring back on herlittle finger. She lackedthe con- victionnecessary for a definiteaction. In Halberstadt,my home town,the storyis told of a youngwoman whom thecount of Regensteinunlawfully incarcerated in thedungeon of Regensteincastle in orderto winher love (compare to Countdi Luna inII Trovatore).The grottoor castlethat bears the name Regenstein is situ- atedat thenorthern border of the Harz, datingfrom a timebefore there werecities. The imprisonedyoung woman, however, owned a ringgiven to herby her lover, to whomshe remainedfaithful and forthis sat in the cellar. With this ring - her fingerswould not have worked - she scratchedan oblonghole in thesandstone on whichthe prison rested. In thespring, she did notknow the date, she beheldthe shimmering light of the valley,and hurriedaway. Thus, the token of her love had a practicaluse. The ringis the saviorwhen the angelof deathfails.

"HereI am,true to youtill death!" RichardWagner, Senta in TheFlying Dutchman, Act III 1. The Dutchmanhas overheardthe conversationbetween the hunter Erikand Senta.Erik reminds Senta "that she once pledgedhim eternal faith."Senta rejects him. The Dutchmanhas overheardand misunder- stoodeverything. He renouncesSenta, rushes to theship, orders the an- chor to be weighed."Senta freesherself from those who are tryingto hold herback, reaches a cliffand throwsherself into the waves." Her last words:"Here I am, trueto you tilldeath!"

2. A Putsch of Emotions For2,000 years, he cruisedthe sea and nowhe decides,from one momentto the next:I willmarry this woman (whomhe has neverseen). Senta, the well-protecteddaughter, jewel of her father'sstock of commodities,throws herself without further ado at this strangerof whomshe has onlyseen picturesand heardstories. We know,however, thatsuch picturesor mythicalstories do not at all resemblethe actual person who suddenlyappears beforeus. Feelingstake timeto develop. It

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 96 On Opera,Film, and Feelings thereforeseems unlikelythat love at firstsight is mutual.An emotion eruptsthat has been buildingup fora long time,enriched by fantasy, by storiesone has heard;yes, love at firstsight, but onlyfor one; the otherfeels magically attracted to the preythat is just lyingthere. He actslike one in love.Thus, in appearanceat least:love at firstsight. Yet, one ofthem is investingthe whole weight of his or herlife, whereas the other,happy-go-lucky, merely seized an opportunity.The suddenness of the Dutchman'sand Senta's fataland mutual fallingin love has somethingof an act of force.One could call it a putschin thedomain of emotion.

3. Older Versions: Sacrificeand Self-Realization;The Dutchman as Vampire Wagnertries to mystifythis situation. But thereare oldertraces. The completephrase preceding Senta's fatal leap reads: "Praiseyour angel and hiswords. Here I am, trueto you tilldeath!" Thus, a moreancient prophecycomes intoplay; it relates to thepromise of God's messenger to liftthe cursefrom the Dutchman'slife, provided a woman dies for him.The angel'swords then mean thereverse, as in thecase ofAbra- ham:there is no substitutefor the human sacrifice; on thecontrary, itis requiredby command - though,in thiscase, the victim of the human sacrificeis notthe sacrificer's own childbut thedaughter of a stranger, robbed fromher father.For it is throughan act of robberythat the Dutchmanmanages to getpossession of the daughter from Senta's father: he beginsby displaying his treasures, behaving no differentlythan a wealthyarmy would in occupyinga poor or defeatedcountry. Justas Artejuin TheNever-Ending Story discovers the battle already oc- curringin theform of paintings on thewalls of a ruin,Wagner's ballad assumesthe endless repetition of that which has alreadyhappened but has neverbeen redeemed:the picture of the pale man above thedoor; in thisregard, Senta has been readylong beforethe pale man actually entersthrough the door. She ends herrecital of theballad ofThe Flying Dutchmanwith "the ecstaticpledge to bring redemptionto the damned." The reasonsfor this pledge lie, as it were,in prehistory,in thecommand of an angelor in Senta'sinterest.

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The pale man. He says:"Ah, bereftof hope as I am, in thishope I stillindulge."

"Afterhis and the helmsman'scalls remained unanswered, Daland discoveredthe Dutchman sitting motionless on theshore. He approachesthe latterwho, in the courseof the conversation thatdevelops, asks the Norwegianto granthim lodgingfor one night.When Daland singsthe praisesof his daughterSenta, the stranger,in a suddenfitofpassion, desires her to be hiswife. .... Only the selflessdevotion of a womanwilling to sacrificeherself could freethe Dutchman from the curse of eternal damnation. In search of this savior,he once again today - thisis his last chance - has set footon solidground."

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4. Senta's Attemptto Escape Her Father It is a terriblefate when the daysthat rush us towarddeath become predictable:nothing new willhappen. What would lifebe like on the side of Erikthe hunter who, as Sentawill have quicklylearnt, has only limitedinterests as faras herperson is concerned?By contrast: the never-endingneediness of the Dutchman.He requiresfundamental redemption.This is theloophole through which Senta can escapethe pa- ternalprison. She has to realizeher interests before the father sells her to thewrong man, for instance Erik. What makes the father unreliable is thathe wouldprefer to sellher more than once. He is nota good businessman.The commodity,as itwere, understands more about the business than the merchant.For she is interestedto meet someone who needs her fatally.Only thiswould be serious.

5. Two DifferentVersions of a Curse A curse dates farback into prehistory.The wretchhas committed blasphemy.A curselike thatalways affects the individual.Collectives whichtempt or blasphemeGod are usuallynot punishedin thisway. They incurthe flipsideof the curse:the everydayconfinement to the habitsof life,civilization and itsdiscontents, the prospectof marriage withErik, the "extendedpresence that leads to death."All thisis al- readydescribed in thefairytale of Sleeping Beauty: she is prickedby the 13thfairy only so she can fallinto a deep sleep- a routineof fate. And, accordingly,one sees onlyprinces lurking around the hedge. Rarely has Sentabeen awakenedto tryto make herway through the thicket from the inside;rarely, too, would the youngwoman and the princemeet midway.The invinciblefascination of romanticopera - comparedto merelydramatic opera - is thisantiphony between the curse and the act ofliberation. Yet while the curse varies from victim to victim,the act of liberationis usuallydescribed in ratherschematic terms. It is based on a particulartype of male actionism,a priormisunderstanding, and the abruptdecision of thewoman to killherself. Whatdo I fightfor, when my life is at stake?"If thehistory of all dead generationsresting like a nightmareon theminds of the living is resolved justfor one moment,my life is nottoo higha priceto pay," says the opera.

6. This Collides with My Mother's Sense of Practicality My grandmotheron my father'sside lived by virtueof her sharp tongue, in constantbattle with her physicallysuperior husband untilhe

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AlexanderKluge 99 died. Halfa yearafter his death, she died as well.She was faithfulto him, especiallyto her war withhim, till death. My maternalgrandmother, bornin 1872,lived in relativeharmony with her husband until he died in 1937.She, however, survived him by another 36 yearsand died,phys- icallyand mentallyquite alert,three weeks after her 100thbirthday in February1973; she remainedfaithful by surviving. Formy mother, i.e., her daughter, coming to grieffor reasons of love was in no waypart of the program. That was reservedfor us. She herself had come to grief,and had died of it. She was wellaware of this,as a kindof trap offate, and had talkedabout it. She didn'tthink of it as tragic, merelyas consistent.A feelingis not provenwrong just because it has runoff the tracks. The ecstaticpledges we makeare preparedfor by the program of our parents'generation. This is thecore of truth in theangel's words, in the compulsionto repeat,in theprinciple of the ballad, in theclosed form in whichdrama is submergedand risesagain to be transfigured,freely adaptedfrom the poets' words. At issue are thebalance sheets by which our forefathersand foremotherslived, sought their happiness, missed theirhappiness, tried to stockpileit, were robbed, etc.

Senta,to the left.

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III

TheUnfiufiled Program of the Bourgeois Tragic Drama

1. Misunderstandingsfrom the Opera Guide ReclamOpera Guide, 16th edition, 1953: "Aida is considered one of the summitachievements of Italian opera. The nobilityof musical language, whose melodicpower of expressionin themost immediate sense of theword manifeststhe soul, is joined bya willto formwhich is in fullcontrol of itsmeans and uses themwith greatest clarity. ... Fascinatingas wellare themusical landscapes (the scene at theriver Nile) and theEgyptian local colorwhich may have nothingto do withancient Egyptian music but, thanksto Verdi'smusical idiom, is raisedabove the merelyhistorical into the realm of a higherartistic truth.

2. Keyword: "Higher ArtisticTruth" Thereis no such thing.Artistic truth does nothave any special status vis-A-vistruth. Nor can truthbe "higher."There are truthsfor which thereis no time,truth that is jammed up because it does not getex- pressed,truths in passage,in the diaspora,truths torn to shreds,etc. However,one cannotclaim that the concept of truth allows for compar- isonsof any kind. I can accumulatelies ... butthe opposite of these lies cannot be more beautiful,more timely,more elevated,more local, moretrue, etc., than true. Thus trutheludes a basicdramatic principle: intensification,heightening, the stretta, the bottleneck. What is true,in a mannerof speaking,regulates itself. In Act IV ofAida "higher"could mean: the sad Amneris,above her thepriests, though all of themstill on theground floor of thetemple. Higheryet, Verdi's misunderstanding that the temple is a "tempiodi volca- no." Above,the Egyptianheavens, a figmentof poetic imagination. Above thatstill, the soffits of thetheater building. One cannotaccom- plish throughmere heightwhat can only be gained by means of a context,relationality (Zusammenhang). The dramaturgyof experience is gravitational,hardly ever linear. We would reach the same conclusionwith regard to a "more pro- foundtruth." It would be underthe feet of Radamesand Aida - i.e. the desert.It would be interestingto thinkof "truthin a non-artistic sense."For instance,by the standards of Egyptian custom, the behavior ofAlceste and Aida is barbaric,certainly not "artistic."The vehemence of feelingsis at odds withart.

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3. "A Summit Achievementof Italian Opera" As in the case of "highertruth," a similarlymistaken notion of the 19thcentury. At issue is the imageof a creativecareer's gradually as- cendingtrajectory. After a crisis(usually the death of the wife or lover), steepascent to thesummit, followed by decline, deterioration, commit- talto a mentalasylum or tuberculosisclinic in old age. It is appropriate for operas to use principleslike accelerando,crescendo, momentary discontinuationof the music,drumbeat, as well as marvelousplateau passages(like the one on peace in SimoneBoccanegra). For the concrete workingprocesses of authors and composers,however, such mountain- eeringimages are inapplicable.

4. "Nobilityof Musical Language" - "The Bourgeoisieof MusicalLanguage" Certainlythere are musicalmaterials which display the qualitiesof bourgeoisacquisitiveness; there are workersor Napoleons of music, slavishor domineeringmusical idioms. The humansenses themselves seem riddledwith class barriers:the eyes strugglewith the ears, the "higher"interests with the physical ones - all sensesfight for their re- spectiverights. In the grandioseproject of opera, the eventsof which operas givean indirectaccount - the primalscenes, the carnagebe- tweennations, the failure of great political causes - are ennobledand raisedto the level of a unifiedidiom of sound, communication,and meaning.This heightenedidiom providesthe common denominator forextras and heroesalike, for the Egyptian slave, the upstart Radames, thePharaoh et al. This resemblesGerman politics in the 19thcentury: aristocrats(von Stein,von Hardenberg,von Bismarck,von Caprivi, PrinceHohenlohe, and manymore) run the affairs of stateas deputies forthe bourgeoisforces who cannotagree among themselves.

5. "Egyptian Local Color" Similarto Turandot,Land of Smiles, or theAmerican feature film, Ver- di's Aidainvents an Egyptianlocal colorfor the sake of a "higherartistic truth."The sluggishlyflowing Nile, the exotic, the "savageness" of this countrywhich does not knowthat it is olderand wiserthan the Italian barbarianswho builtRome - theseare marksof distinctionlike the ringspierced throughthe noses of prisoners.The inventionof so- calledlocal coloroccurs around the same timeas theflourishing of the slave trade in the Sudan.

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6. "Le vaisseau fant6me" The Frenchtitle of the opera TheFlying Dutchman epitomizes the principleof the 19th-centuryopera: a phantomship. In thiscentury, music, socialrelations were for the first time set into a dynamicmotion (begin- ningwith a smalladvance in the 18thcentury and extendingthrough the outbreakof thewar in 1914 as partof the 19thcentury) ... Like a chaoticark, this phantom ship carries in itshold thesymbolic associationsof all pastcenturies, setting up relationsamong them freely and arbitrarily- a confusedway of establishing firm ground. This atti- tude,however, is ambivalent:one wouldlike to tellthe truth - thateve- rythingis in flux,that in thissocial sea therecannot be anyfixed positions- yet,at thesame time,a landingis attemptedevery seven years. One ofthese two goals could be accomplished,but not both. The people of theopera are notin lovewith civilization: "La merest plus belle / que les cathidrales...." ("The ocean is morebeautiful / thanthe cathedrals. . .").

7. The Approach to Symbolic Sequences In the opera Le vaisseaufantome, several myths intersect which are morehostile in relationto each otherthan class antagonisms might be: the wanderingof Ahasver,the wanderingsof Odysseus,pirate tales, thestory of Kundry's laughter about God whichleads to her2,000 year persecution,etc. This multiplicity(the antagonismthat the diverse mythicalfragments foster among themselves)makes any redemption inevitablyschematic. The originsof the events appear multiplied - far too manyreasons for one Norwegianfjord or fora singlehistorical yearin the Egyptian-EthiopianWar. In theend: a leap intothe waves or a walled-intomb - fartoo fewanswers. The ways in whichour two centuries,the 19thand the 20th,approach such symbolicsequences are fundamentallysuperficial. The twocenturies act (presumablyin themanner of an administrativearis- tocracy)as if thesesequences of the mind,these symbolic sequences and authenticnarratives, could be manipulatedentrepreneurially, at will.As ifone could plan whetherto use theimages, sounds, or narra- tivesin a documentaryor fictionalvein. This attitudecorresponds to an incompleteform of materialismin these two centuries,to their "occasional materialism" (Gelegenheitsmaterialismus).

8. The Wanderings and Attempted Landings of Ulysses Via detours, the suffererUlysses approaches his home, the island of

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Ithaca.In one instance,he insultsthe god of thesea by puttingout the eye of one of his relatives,a one-eyedgiant. Storm and shipwrecken- sue, Ulyssesis saved,falls into the hands of princesses,a sorceress,and spiritswho tryto seduce himfrom the shore (but he has cottonballs in his ears or else is tiedto themast); at anyrate, he seemsto managethe separationswith almost greater perfection than the rapprochements. Now he has reachedthe piece of land fromwhich he originallycame (terra,solum). He does notenter a pale,bearded man. Rather,he takesa bath,disguises himself. He killsthe suitors who besiegehis wife; he dec- imatesthe staff for having been disloyalduring his vagaries. Gradually, he is gettingused to the happyoutcome of his fate;it surprisedhim. This is a totallydifferent plot fromthat of the Dutch captainwho, "in ragingwind and violentstorm /. ... once soughtto rounda cape; / he cursed,and in a fitof madnessswore, / 'In all eternity,I'll notgive up!' /.... And Satan heard. . . ." As far as blasphemy goes, this is a ratherminor offense, committed in the heat of passion. Hard to believe that,as a result,the Dutchmanwas subjectedto 2,000 yearsof punishment.There must be somethingin him complicitwith the curse, an indecisiveness.This means, "that Satan took him at his word"; probablythere was a contractbetween them.

9. Kundry,Ahasver, Lucifer,Nora Leaves the Doll's House ... There are otherswho are cursed, fallen angels: a woman who laughed whenJesus made his way to Golgotha;a woman in Norway who dared to leave husbandand child- now she leads a solitarylife. In one case, a cosmiccoup d'etat provokes the curse,in anotheran almost trivialviolation. The excessivedisparity in thesenarratives suggeststhat they originate from entirely different stories, which were ac- cumulated,superimposed upon each other;stories in whichthe ability to discriminategot lost.

10. In thelogic of such predetermination,of such incorrigiblepowers, thereis no traceof free will, not even an involuntaryone ofthe human species.

11. Terra,Solum Both termsmean "land"; theycould also mean "area," "a surface on which to stand." Terracan also referto "fatherland" or even to the whole planet - these are large areas of abstraction for the powers of

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 104 On Opera,Film, and Feelings fate.The Latinword solum cannot compete. It alwaysrefers to theactu- al place whereone putsdown one's feet.A partof the ground to which everyhuman being has a right.In theopera Aida, both terms for land, country,home, surfaceare used.

12. Turning Drama Inside Out In antiquity,drama reportedon eventsthat eluded the will of the persons concerned.A trace thereofcan be found in later dramatic works;these later works, however, delight in thedemonstration offree will.From the tortures incurred in thename of freewill, drama, like a vampire,takes its nightlynourishment. To the extentthat they are morethan just effects,these systems of logic, these intensifications tear human beings to pieces. The accumulationof causalitiesand familyrelations, the masquer- ades of choice, produce the tragicending. Chance, luck, detail - whateverwas not subjectto mychoice (as littleas I chose to havethis motherand thisfather) thus offers, contrary to the rulesaccording to whichexperience is traditionallyorganized, afree surface for associations, a startingpoint for our sense of intimacy.This is where the new storieslie.

"Responseto Jutta Bruckner"2

"That which bears us, as the surfaceof the waterbears the ship, is only the most recentlayer, the 19thcentury...."

2. "Anmerkungenzu JuttaBrUckner," Asthetik und Kommunikation 53/54 (December 1983):233-35, written in responseto Brickner'sarticle, "Carmen and thePower of Emo- tion,"in thesame issue.Quotations in Kluge'sreply, unless otherwise noted, are from Brickner'sarticle. When Carlos Saura's film Cannen (1983) was releasedin WestGerma- ny,it scoredan overwhelmingsuccess with female audiences. In BrUckner'sarticle, the feministfilmmaker and filmtheorist distinguishes this reception from a merelyregressive cult,based on a simpleidentification with the heroine. She attributesthe fascination of Saura'sfilm to theemancipatory pathos in Carmen'sdance: herbody learns to speaka narcissisticpassion that is not compensatorybut an expressionof freedom,a sourceof energy.Hence, Brackner argues, the film offers less an eroticfantasy than a fantasyof liberation.In thiscontext, she criticizesKluge's plea foran "emancipationof feelings," claimingthat it both remains within a maternalmodel of the satisfaction of needs and, at thesame time,denies sexual difference in favorof a mutualityderived from the liberalist conceptof themarket. On thefemale reception of Saura'sfilm, also see thediscussion "Carmenon theCouch," Frauenund Film 36 (February1984): 73-77. [Translators' note.]

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If thatis so, we mustbecome submarines.Without metaphor: "... forthe emancipationwill not be one, or the old one willbe false,if it has no body." Ifit has theold falsebody, however, it will be no eman- cipationwhatsoever. RegardingSaura's Carmen,Jutta Bruickner opens a vasthorizon and thencloses itoff again towardsthe end of hertext - witha classifying mechanism;that is, withold glue.

A few keyphrases: "In defense of emancipated emotions" This expression reveals a misunderstanding.Don Jos& stabs Carmenand, as he himselfsays (in the opera),he killswhat is dearest to him in theworld, thus killing something in himself.A littlelater, he too willbe seized and condemnedto death. Nietzschecelebrates this in his essay"The Case ofWagner" (1888): "love as destiny... cynical, guiltless,cruel - and forthat very reason, nature! Love, whose methods are thoseof war,and whichis foundedupon the deadlyhate betweenthe sexes!" Through this "African gaiety," he claimsto have become "so Indian,so sedentary"and "a betterphilosopher." This kind of ideologicalvogue, so 19thcentury through and through,enrages me. All I can see in Don Jose's shortcircuit is logic,no feelingwhatso- ever. Carmen lookingover into the arena, all frazzledand madlyin love (or themore subtleparallel in Saura's film:the scene in thetextile factory),might be describedas nervous,momentarily not in possession of anyparticular feeling. We knowof Don Jose thatthe pent-up force of his love initiallykeeps him fromeven perceivingCarmen's will (or her state);then he forgetsall his feelingsand stabsaway. I willnot in anyway, shape, or formspeak of an emancipationin relationto such catastrophes.There can be no such thing.We mustbreak throughthis kind of melodramaticcollision by relyingon our feeling, intuitively.If at themoment Don Jose drawshis daggerthe prompter wereto call to the protagonists,"I requestan immediatediscussion" - then,I assert,their feelings would notpermit them to proceedme- chanicallytowards their mutual date with the executioner. After the to- and-froof thisthree-way conversation with the prompter, perhaps on thisparticular day Carmenwould simplyrefuse to haveanything more to do withthis type of man. Afterall, theonly thing that Don Jos&fails to understandis whythe matador is preferredover him. This same situation informsSaura's reinterpretation.The macho man is fatally wounded by the comparison with another man, rather than by the woman's refusal of tenderness.

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The prompter'sintervention (or anyother intervention, for instance: the police sirenis heard and thingsget serious)creates surprises; they functionlike comedy,although nothing about the situationis funny. This formof defensebrings the emotionsthat govern the restof life intocontact with those that control the moment- withdeadly consequences fortragedy. I contendthat, under real-life conditions and forthe sake of the mo- dernityof our novels,the productivemove is to upset the strategyof the willed isolationof feelingpromoted by the 19th century.This move would ensure that a momentarygeneral assembly offeelings would be continuallyin session.This general assembly offeelings is a grass-roots democracy.The narcissistic"I" by contrastis merely"parliamentari- an." This differsfrom the concept of emancipation (for the assembled emotionsthemselves would not have to changeif theywere inserted into an emancipatorycontext). There is also no defermentof drives. Severaldrives, exactly as theyare in everydaylife, would come into contactwith each other,instead of enteringinto melodramatic strug- glesfor precedence. I would beginby exploring these dramaturgies ofex- perience,before opposing them with thefoundations of feminist thought.

"The marketmodel lacks history" The marketmodel is a shorthandterm for a certainkind of thinking. Marketsthemselves (unlike the theories about them)definitely do not lackhistory. In fact,I am certainthat as yetwe hardlycomprehend the extentof thatwhich belongs to the past of markets.There is onlythe logic ofsacrifice and thatof themarket. Otherwise there is no exchange, only isolation.In everysphere of intimacy,the marketis disavowed but nonethelessthere. And it is not necessarilythe capitalistmarket. "You ask theimpossible. Carmen never lied. Her soul remainsfirm. It's overbetween her and you" (Carmen).This is eroticGaullism. Not in 300 yearshas our cultureproduced human beings who come equipped withthe constitutionfor such emotionalharshness. I understandthat "free-floating misery" means a splittingof con- sciousnessfor the processes of fantasy. Instead of religious illusion, a new pantheismof the imagination.Millions of womenin the 1920sviewed thevamp films in thisway, but did notact as vampsin everydaylife. The distortionis even more extremein the identificationwith Carmen. "Powerof the dance,which is liberationwithout cause. The searchfor the physical ... ." Now, thatdance is performedby expertsof a culture

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AlexanderKluge 107 thatis relativelyremote for West Germans. On thescreen, at that.The monstrousrefinement of the reactionarysocial model thatis being danced shakesup the bodies of theviewers - perhapsin a moredif- ferentiatedway, but in principlejust likethe goose step on urbanstreets, quickened by male fantasies.A rhythmicdramaturgy that stands in completecontradiction to everythingwe do, actuallyfeel, or experience in context.I cannotbelieve that the bodies of the viewers jammed into seats in themovie theater are liberatedby means of a dramaturgyof the 19th (or 16th) centurybeing danced beforetheir eyes. It rather seems to me a case of a "thoughtconstruct" accompanied by an emotionalovertone.

"The wearinessresulting from the persistentsmall steps thattrans- formall courage into mere tenacity... ." Holdingon to thisbitter experience. It was courage,but only tenacity has remained.The filmpromises to change all that.The cinematic dramaturgiestransform the weariness, small steps, and tenacityby lifting themabove themisery they suffer under real conditions.However, in- herentin real conditionsthere already rests a wealthof "thoughtcon- structs"that can consoleby playfully alternating self-deception with impressionsof reality. None ofthis has anytendency towards murder, war, greatdeeds. The majorityof women do not walkaround wearing the body-dressof a sex-objectfor macho eyes.They have to concealtheir eroticbodies underclothes for their entire lives. No Don Josewill stab them.Nor are theyasked ifthey still love someone.At the same time, thismajority of women is involvedin a privateeconomy of itsown sort, in whichgreat amounts of the warmth, learning, and intuition(even tenderness)necessary for life are generated.These are theproducts that are necessaryfor the manufacturingof human beings. If these products could everbe coherentlyorganized - thatis, by human abilitiesand needs,not by the principles of the 19thcentury, particularly those of isolation- thenwe would not have to be "androgynousout of fear."

"The maternalmethod of production" Forthose who do notunderstand this concept, the matriarchal method ofproduction exists among us notas somethingcomplete, but rather as a residue,a ruin,a component. One can be certain,however, that these traces are "notwarlike in their methods."In a relationof production that is "cynical,guiltless, cruel and inexorable," monstersthrive, not humans. The point of the film ThePower of Emotion is this: in the traditional

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 108 On Opera,Film, and Feelings alliancesof feelings- thatis, neitherwith passionate submission, nor entirelywithout it - humanrelationships do notthrive at all.War, as a sensual-practicalcritic of emotion,defeats our feelingson all levels. Whoeveris contentwith this defeat, let him make himselfat home in thisworld. .... It is no coincidencethat the individual positive contributions in The Powerof Emotion, the only examples of happy endings, have to do either withthe absence of emotions(accident, luck, rescue by a criminal),or withlabor + miracle. I haveseen theopera Carmen48 times,my sister has seen it 17 times, myfather 108, and mygrandmother 14. I can thusrule out thepossi- bilitythat this beautiful opera suggestsany ways out ofits dilemma, or thatit depictsany actualexperience.

The Powerof Emotion (Excerpts)3 Warin theMedia Remarks Tunnel Jungle:Preliminary

This film deals with the problem of the publicsphere (Offentlichkeit). Both the classicalforms of public life,and the modern,public law channels are threatenedtoday by the newmedia. Yet, even without thesenew, privately owned media, the public sphereis disintegrating - beforethe abundanceof immediateexperience produced by people can findany adequate, wider form of public expression. What one has livedthrough (Erlebnisse) can become experience(Erfahrung) only if it can be relatedto theexperiences of others. Experience is predicated on public comparison.The accomplishmentsof the public sphere thusbelong to themost valuable treasures of the free West. For the Ro- man respublica, this is encapsulatedin the fourletters S.P.Q.R. Above the formerlyRoman cityof Mainz [theseat of ZDF, the second Ger- man TV network],these letters are stilltacitly written in the sky.But one needs a long-termmemory to be awareof this.In the 19thcentu- ry,images with the powerof realityprovided a frameworkfor public orientation.They are metaphorsof far-reaching significance, referring, as the phrasegoes, to: "State,Opera, and the IndustrialWorld Fair."

3. Die Machtder Gefiihle(Frankfurt: Zweitausendeins, 1984); script and materials re- lating to Kluge's film,The Power of Emotion (1983). The excerpts are from pages 234-235, 50-53, 202-205, 187-189, 239-240, 272-273, 346-348, 424-425, 447-456.

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In a similarmetaphoric vein, the cinema adapts from the opera the classicaleconomy of emotion as it correspondsto a publicsphere rendered obsoleteby actualdevelopments. The followingforces, each actingindependently, are juxtaposed: (1) An immenseurban landscape, rendered in an imaginarymood, composed of impressionsof the Rhein-Mainarea, whichis undergo- ingreconstruction. Less visiblefrom the outside, though just as power- ful:the concurrentreconstruction of emotions. (2) The classicalproject of a factoryfor intensified emotions. This is theclassical opera and itsabode. Not seen frontally,from the perspectiveof the audience, but from backstage where the work is beingdone. (3) In clearcontrast to thelatter, a modernproject (founded after the giganticopera of the Third Reich), sortingpluralistically dispersed emotionsinto the categoriesof informationand entertainment- the moderatepublic law media. (4) The superimpositionof all the formsof traditionalpublic life (items1-3) by a projecttaking shape today,the privatelyowned, new media. This projectalters the environmentalconditions of human consciousness.It is a questionof ecologywhich can be more importantthan the questionof nuclearpower plants or otherthreats to the environment. (5) In the course of the film,a seriesof characters(fictional figures: RosemarieEilers, Betty Waldstabe, the lightingspecialist Hinrichs, a time-motionanalyst, an accountant,the architectof an opera house, the editorDresen et al.) traversethese fourhighly diverse contexts. Throughoutthe plot, these figures will engage in livelycontact with actual charactersfrom the worldof film,radio, television,opera, daily life,and politics.

TheMoment of Thuth

"Give in to yourfather's wishes and you'll be marriedby tomorrow. . . ." On her behalf, however, the matchmakingfather says this: "Believe me, she's as faithfulas she is beautiful. . . " The woman is sold, and yetshe is recognized- thisis more thanjust a sale. Does Wagnerhave a sense of humor?

- Would you jump afterme to save me? - Where?

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- Into the cold waterof a Northernbav. - To save you? - Yes. - No otheroption? - Be honest.It won't affectour relationshipif you wouldn't. - I wouldjump in afteryou. - You're lying!

It occurred to her that he habituallylied when he saw no other way to shut her up. They took a few hurried steps.

- You don't have tojump, I'm onlyasking. Not thatI am the Fly- ing Dutchman,she said, but assumingI were? - Then I wouldjump in afteryou, to save you. - I don't believeyou. - Nor are you the FlyingDutchman, answered Emil Ml1ders.

Because she is a woman, his fiancee (withwhom he had stepped out of the opera house into the Munich night) could never be the Flying Dutchman - who, misinterpretingthe conversationbetween the hunter and Senta, thoughthis bride was being unfaithfuland jumped into the harbor. Senta jumped afterhim, though, and theyboth headed off to heaven. "This story,which I found moving," said Hilde, "had nothing in it to look forwardto. Why should I, hoping to be saved, go offto heaven withyou by way of the dirtywater of Munkmarsh harbor - to use an example we both know - where we couldn't drown anyway at low tide because it's so flat?When we both know that up there past the stratospherecomes the Van Allen Belt, then emptyouter-space air and nothing in the way of a place to live?" "You can't say 'outer-space air,' " replied Emil. "Why do I get so worked up," Hilde persisted,"when great and ab- surd emotions are involved,but staycool when thereare realisticissues at hand, like whetherI should pick up some sausage on the way home so you'll be relieved of hunger in the evening? Is that supposed to mean that the places and occasions for great emotions do not exist?" "Apparently, that is what art is tryingto tell us," answered Emil, who was anxious to stop in at the Leopoldbefore it closed. To do thathe needed to hail a cab, but the dispute was impeding him. "Justa minute!" said Hilde, "You can't just put me offlike that." In her mind she

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AlexanderKluge 111 lingeredwith Senta's gaze, whichshe had held forso long - thegaze directedat theapparition of the ghostly man in theentrance to theship- yard.But now she was supposedto rushto thetaxi stand with her fian- ce ifthey had anyintention of making it to theLeopold, where they could run intopeople Hilde had no desireto see - people who in no way could be relatedto anythingin theatmosphere of the opera, neither to the ghostlysailors, nor the Norse merchantdepot. Yet,they were not theonly operagoers hurriedly in need ofcabs, and so therewere objec- tivereasons why the two of them had to show a littlehustle if they wantedto get a cab forthemselves. This seemed absurdto Hilde. "Why,"she asked,"must we go to theopera ifwe have to hurryso much when it's over?" The opera seemed to her to be an exercisein thelonger breaths required by therhythms of emotion."I think,"she said, "thatart does wantto tell us something.But it can't be merely thatwe mustconstantly believe in spirits.As faras thisopera is concerned,it seems to me God's vengeancehas lastedtoo long. That this Dutchmanin AD 30 (or zero, around Christ'sdeath) laughed at the wrongmoment shouldn't necessarily have condemnedhim to a jour- ney intothe 20th century.God is tough,but not thatpetty." "The action,"answered Emil, "takes place in 1810, not in the 20th century." "Stilltoo long," Hilde replied.She foundEmil's answersuperficial. "Concentrateon myquestion," she said. "I am asking:what does art wantto tellus, ifI stillfeel that for a fewhours, watching this piece, I was able to accommodateor mobilize largefeelings, but thatnow I can't?God's vengeance,in contrast,has lastedtoo long." Theyhad ar- rivedat the taxi stand.There were none left. "Whichones?" asked Emil. "What do you mean?" said Hilde. "Which large feelings,in which directiondid yours go?" Even thoughEmil had not remainedwholly unmoved by the opera, he asked out of politeness.She could not answerright away.

She was disappointedin theconversation. It hadn'treally been a conversationbecause they were simultaneously rushing for a cab. She had to makeup hermind, the moment she could finallyopen the doorof a cab,whether she should find him superficial (not paying attentionto herand at thesame time too hecticto payattention to his ownfeelings) or whetherthere was stillsome "commonground" on

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which she could continue livingwith him. Then she jumped after him into the back of the car. We must not be treatedthis way, she thought.It was goingto cost herdays to become clearabout whatfol- lowinghim had meant. Since she reallydid wantto talkabout what art had tQ tell both her and him. She had figuredout (had checked her watch)that it took 17 minutesbefore Senta and the Dutchman reached an understandingabout their firsteye contact. Hilde, uneducatedin the higherarts, imagined she would need 30 minutes to interpretcorrectly only one of Emil's exasperatedlooks or the movementof his paw towardsthe car door. She found thislack of time quite unfairwith regard to any one of her dailymovements.

"Why, she asked, must we go to the opera ifwe have to hurryso much when it's over?"

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Thus,she beganto doubtwhether art had anythingto tellthem, vac- illatingin herjudgment only because Emil wantedto getto theLeopold so single-mindedlyand onlybecause he had promisedto make an ap- pearance. When theyentered, nobody looked at herfor more thana second.Their friends took it as a matterof coursethat they would appear as promised.Have a seat,Emil, one of themsaid. Hilde feltlike crying.

Performanceand Amnesia

The opera singerW. was a big starin Italy,Austria, and France;in the FederalRepublic, however, she had to fightagainst the inertiaof the apparatus.She foughtfor her art,against the slothof the apparatus.She usuallyarrived at thetheater before noon to warmup. It is not humanlypossible simply to arriveand singwithout preparation. Noth- ing big happens instantaneously.Covering Frankfurt for the Berlin dailyTAZ, the reporterquestioned the artistin her dressingroom.

REPORTER: Miss W., are you goingto performTosca as well? PRIMA DONNA: That's whatI'm famousfor. R: Whatare yourfavorite roles from that period? P: Today, Tosca. Otherwise,Aida, Gilda.... R: All of themtonight? P: Unfortunately,no. Tomorrow,Aida. R: Why"unfortunately"? P: It would be interestingto compare the differentexperiences. Fromher temporal distance, I thinkthat Aida, an Egyptianslave, could probablyhelp Tosca figureout how to travelsafely to la Spezia with her cavalier. Conversely,the prima donna living around 1804 could certainlypass on a fewwords of advice to Aida, who lived around 4000 BC. It is impossible,however, for thesetwo women to knoweach other. R: Are you sayingthis with the women's movementin mind? P: Whatdo you mean?

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Aida, 4000 B.C.

"RejectedLover" (Beate Holle)

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R: Unitedwe are strong. P: Yes, we are. R: But you knowall threewomen: Aida, Tosca, and Gilda.... P: ... and I'm moving into dramatic genre now, I'm preparing Kundry,Brunhilde, Asuzena.. R: Yes, and thenyou could uniteall six womenand theirvarious wordsof advice,no? P: That would be difficult. R: How so? You embodyall thesewomen. P: But stillonly one a night. R: But ifyou made an effort.... P: All the same, I am nevermore thanone of themper evening. R: Why? P: Because I make an effort.I concentrate. R: And ifyou didn't? P: I would not even be one of them. R: But you aren'tAida anyway. P: How do you know? R: In my eyes,you are Miss Wallstabe,the opera singer.You are sittingright in frontof me. P: You can'tknow who's sittingin frontof you just likethat. When I concentrate,I am Aida. R: Or the impressionofAida. P: Then you are the impressionof a reporter. R: I am a journalist. P: And who livesinside you? A dead writer? R: Whatdo you mean? P: If no one livesinside you, you mightas well notbe here. R: I am here. P: (rising)I don't believeyou. (Bell signal:it sounds threetimes at length,per orderof the stage manager).

More thanever, I am convincedthat there is a relationshipbe- tweenreality and poetrywhich can be capturedon film.What a monstrousand beautifulthing! Eleonora Duse.

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The "fate"motif from the opera Carmenby GeorgesBizet (see arrow, above). Fromthe overture: "Everything is inevitable;everything prede- termined."To whichFrasquita, in thefinal act: "Carmen,some good advice?Go away,don't stayhere!" To whichCarmen: "I am not the woman to tremblebefore him." Had she leftas suggested,however, the hangmenof Sevillewould not have had to killDon Jose.

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Carmen.The onlyexisting photograph of thisyoung woman, takenby L. Perez,Seville.

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In a cigarettefactory in Seville,the women workers are quarreling. The youngCarmen has injuredanother worker. She is arrestedand promisesthe sergeanton duty,Don Jose, "innumerabledelights." The sergeant"desperately struggles with himself." He "succumbsto theseduction" and releasesthe young woman. The promiseof the innumerabledelights refers to a restaurantowned by a certainLillas Pastia. Full of expectations,Don Jose goes there. Withher promise Carmen meant to say,as herconfidante, Mercedes, explains,that she would be availableto him forthe durationof one night.She meantto saythat she was goingto be generous,that she was notgoing to keepcount during this night. Don Jose,who had released her,should feellike a lieutenantcolonel of the dragoon regiment; she,Carmen, would be availablehour after hour, would be attentiveto him.The kindofficer on dutywho let her escape "should be able to takehis time,like a gentleman."She had promisedto come up with something.This is whatshe meantby theword "delight."The word "innumerable"referred to the durationof theentire night.

"What you started,you have to finish... what matterdeath?"

Atthe time when the promise was to be fulfilled,Carmen's problem was to recreatein herselfa mood whichroughly corresponded to her mood whenshe made thepromise. Otherwise she would have broken her word. However,that which she had promised,I'amour, is some- thingstubborn, something not availableevery day. Hence Carmen's song: "L'amour est un oiseau rebel."

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"Love is a rebelliousbird ... it isa in vain to call it ifit chooses to refse." "Love is a rebelliousbird... itis all in vainto callit ifit choosesto refuse,"

If Zacke looked like Laura del Sol, if she had put her middle- European legs throughthe basic trainingof flamenco,then she mightalso be preparedto acceptan aginggallant like the dance masterAntonio, even ifhe could not make her intoa top-notch dancer,since Zacke, after all, has a regularjob and does not have thetime required for show performance. He mightdesire her as a moderatelycompetent expert in dance (althoughshe doubts he would be interestedin herunless she provokedenvy on the basis of her achievement),yet in no case would she wantto displace, oust or killthe companion of thisnervous master. Therefore, she resentsthe fact that the director Saura first sets up Antonio'saging companionas Carmen'srival and thenleaves her in thelurch. "A connoisseurof flamenco tells me thather (i.e., Carmen's)style of dancingis a lot more 'masculine'than that of her rival... ."4 That tops it,says Zacke.

4. Bruickner,"Carmen" 229. [Translators'note.]

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Hilde Lehmann,prompter.

HildegardLehmann gave a breakthroughperformance in theopera Carmen.When Don Joseraises the knife to killCarmen, whom he wor- shipswith all his life,she asksfor a delay:she suggeststhat he thinkit over again, she asks to discuss his action. Afterthe discussion,Don Joseis no longerready to act, although, as he pointsout, the reasons for such action had not changed. Likewise,the actressplaying Carmen concedesthat now, after the discussion, she is no longerwilling to sac- rificeher lifefor love. A week fromnow she would probablyeven cease to be infatuatedwith the matadorEscamillo. For thisone week, however,it was notworth dying. Besides, she had no interestin killing Don Jos&.She saysshe is notvindictive, but rathergrateful to him for

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AlexanderKluge 121 what has happened. If she were to throwthe ringto the floor,she would in effectbe killingDon Jose,because thenhe would stab her; thisat leastis whatit saysin the score.As a result,Don Josewould be hunted,seized, and sentencedto death in accordancewith Spanish law. One should really tryto preventthis outcome together.The spectators(a) have followed,spellbound, the whisperingand hissing trialogue betweenthe prompter-who cranes her neck out of the prompt-boxas faras she thesingers squatting in frontof the can--and prompt-box.The spectators(b) feelcheated out of an evening,are be- comingrestless, hurry to thebox-office to gettheir money back. Here againwe have twopossibilities: (a) thecashier has alreadygone home, sinceshe assumedthe opera would proceedas usual; whatis she doing at home,when and how does thenews reach her that, at theend ofthe opera,her presence was required,as itwere, in lieu ofthe dramatic climax? (b) thecashier was stillto be foundin thecanteen, is called back and on herpart engages in a discussion,trying to placatethis evening's payingpatrons. She is not allowedto reimbursepatrons without per- missionof the manager.The discussionis now devotedto practical questions(polylogue).

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Nickname:Carmen

The officespace at the radio stationis situatedoff hallways in the same waythat rooms adjoined the hallwaysof theThird Reich's War Departmenton Bendlerstrassein Berlin- althoughthose hallswere roomierand moreold-fashioned. The doors to theoffices at thisradio stationare smallerthan those in the War Department. FriedrichKarmecke is a high-levelpolitical functionary - a supervi- sorfor the "steam radio"; thatis, chiefeditor and head ofthe political sectionof a WestGerman radio station.Karmecke is despondent.He gazes out thewindow towards the lots of the car depot,a provisional space which neitherclaims - nor could be permittedto claim - the term"parking-lot." A new technicalpalace is planned here thatwill expand the dominion of the complex northward.Karmecke would rathernot thinkabout thefortuitous borders of the complexof 1937, whichhad surroundeda villa-likestructure. The sunnyautumn landscape outside,he muses,probably feels cool. In yearspast, in severalisolated incidents that he recallssleepily this morning,Karmecke had engaged in extramaritalsexual encounters. Added up, all ofthese incidents constitute his Carmen. It is his experience withventuring beyond the limits;the restis office. At a board meeting,the higherfunctionaries of the stationdiscuss possibleradio actionin cases of emergency:civil or internationalwar. TV transmissionswill be cut offfirst, but radio broadcastswill continue. They mustbe transmittedto the individualtransistor owners sittingin theircellars. What should be broadcast?How should it be broadcast- moderated,unmoderated? With music, without music? Should the news be editoriallyapproved or should it remainunap- provedbut subjectto "generalguidelines"? Or shouldthe sourcesbe censored?What protection against deviating versions? Karmecke goes to thephone. He triesto convinceMrs. Scherer, who runsthe canteen, to hook him up to a cup of coffee.Such a servicemust be availableto the highestfunctionaries in the complex; Mrs. Schererpoints out, however,that the canteen does not servebefore 11:30 a.m. An excep- tionto thisrule would cause bad blood in-house,she says.Karmecke is, however,very sleepy. He used to be considereddangerous when he was sleepy.His sleep- inesswas perceivedas a disguisefor dangerous situations. It wasn'tac- tuallya mask, but rather,whenever this sensitiveman detected mortal danger in his vicinity,he got sleepy.

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In general,federal representatives had no reasonwhatsoever to in- vestigatea state-runpublic radio institution.But not havinga security agentof its own, there was no doubtthat the radio station presented an area of securityrisk in an emergencysituation, and so the self-gov- ernedorganization now feltobligated to come up witha remedy.In- stead of doing so, however,managers, program directors, the editor- in-chief,and a fewother higher-ups sat at a roundtable with federal of- ficersand haphazardlytried to workup some kind of securityplan. This conspiracywas directedagainst Karmecke's need forsecurity. If he tookpart in it,he himselfwould haveto submitto a securitycheck (a three-monthlong process of questioningand investigationcon- cerned above all else with factsthat could be exploitedby black- mailers:extramarital relations, friendships, acquaintances, encounters in railroadcars, etc.) If he did notagree to thesecurity check, he would stillbe allowedbecause ofhis rankto advisethe station in an emergencysituation, but he would notbe apprisedof thedecisions made - he would have to waitoutside the door. In otherwords, he would not be toleratedin thisoffice any longer, since, after all, theinterested parties assembledin thisconference room did believein the probabilityof a case of emergency.If, on the otherhand, he agreed to the security check,his collectiveCarmen would be put on record.How could he explain thatthere was nothinghe could be blackmailedwith - by sayinghe had an agreementwith his wife?For a moment,he had the crazyimpulse to desertto Carmen- who, as mentionedbefore, was not one- and fleewith her to the smugglers.But what,after 1968, would thatbe? The orderlyGDR thatwould subjecthim to a security check?

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"That whichbears us, like the surfaceof thewater bears the ship,is only the most recentlayer, the 19thcentury. . . ."

On 14 November1983, the day thefirst snow fell over greater Ber- lin, RosemarieZacke, suddenly having had two hoursto kill,sat in a movietheater watching Carlos Saura's filmCarmen. It was a successful film- thatshe knew."It is about thepower of the dance, which is liberationwithout cause ... ," so read the textof her favoritefilm critic, on whose reviewsRosemarie usually relied. Now the femalelead of Carmen(Laura del Sol) was cuttingthe throatof the agingwoman - dance masterof that studio in Spain.The womenworking in thefacto- rydispersed into hostiledance groups;they made the floortremble rhythmicallywhile they cut throughthe rowsof theirantagonists and circledaround one another(as in a cockfight), until suddenly the murder,like a rhythmiccut, put an end to the dance. As forZacke, it was notliberating for her physically to watchthe dance and murderwhile sittingin a narrowseat. She was botheredby the foul air and was think- ingenviously of ElfriedeEilers, who, at thatvery moment (it being Ad- vent),was probablyscurrying through the streetsof Berlin.The first snow! Zacke had the feelingshe was missingsomething.

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"The Police Chiefis Dead"

The police chiefof Rome,Scarpia, was eitherat firstsight a conserva- tiveof the old school,a gentleman,whose clothedbody one forgotin favorof his face;an untouchableman, who becomesembroiled in an intriguejust thisonce by the overwhelmingdiva, Tosca. He wantsto stealTosca awayfrom that horrible farmer boy, that immature mama's boyMario, whom she had takenfor her lover merely because he had a fewcrude gestures at his command;this spoiled childwill drop her, however,as soon as she,growing older, will be displacedby the rising diva, Ermolli,and only then will Tosca have reached a stateof full bloom to whichScarpia can relate.For Scarpia,each courseof action is contingentupon the need forthe Vaticanstate somehow to prevail, and thatin turndepends exclusively on thatbastard Mellas leading the Austriantroops in northernItaly.

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Tosca: In theforeground, police chief Scarpia, whom she has stabbed.

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Or the police chiefScarpia, feared throughout Rome ("Trematutta Roma"), was a primitiveclimber, a wild boar, a bureaucratwho thoughthe could affordthe diva on top of an oysterbreakfast without neglectinghis oppressiveduties; a dutifulman, who, on thisparticular day,felt ambitious enough to wantto add "man ofpleasure" to hislist of personalqualities - thatis, to augmentthe trappingsof abstract pleasure-seekingas long as thestate apparatus somehow holds together. Ifthis were indeed thecase, however,it would be impossibleto explain how the Queen of Naples could ever have exchangeda single wordwith this Scarpia, while such an exchangewould havehad to pre- cede his installmentas police chief. The guestperformer who is to portrayScarpia this evening inherits a longline ofproductions that characterize Scarpia as a stoutperpetrator of violence - probablya mistake.In this crude rendition,Rome would not obey him. He would be whisperedabout among his spies and counterspies.The Queen would be informedthat this violent man is seekingpersonal gain. He mayprove competent in theexecution of stateenemies, but he would threatenthe court itself and, withhis lack of control,could not be distinguishedfrom the usurperapproaching fromacross the Alps. For a police chiefin the Palazzo Farneseis him- selfsubject to surveillance- unlesshe is a gentleman.The performance should at least suggesthow the social climbertries to imitate the countenanceof a gentleman.Trimmed like a Christmastree with self- made qualities,he has to acquirethis mask before allowing himself the luxuryof pleasureslike Tosca. In thebustling opera house, thereis no place quiet enough - nei- theron anyof the various floors, nor in thedeserted areas backstage - to allowfor an observantattitude. What looks likea hall-sizedungeon or abyssnext to the FlyingDutchman's ship - set up in preparation forthe next evening- will actuallybe the back wall of the Palazzo Farnesein the second act. The onlyplaces ofattentive reflection are theareas behind the police chief'seyes, but the singerdoes not seem to care. He carriesthese areas around the stagewith him. These retinasof bothSicilies scrutinize, fromthe perspectiveof a restlessRome, an era of whichScarpia has storedin theback of his mindonly the 20 yearsof his activeservice as foremostspy. His enemies call him "the memory,"a livingdossier that does not have to read the reports of his spies in order to divine what goes on in his Roman domain.

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Whatwe have hereis a livingmachine, constructed for an age other thanthe one thatis being destroyed.Sadly, this retinal quality of the role is drownedout by the routineScarpia moving about in thefore- groundof the stage. "Give me," he saysto the stagemanager (and whilehe speaks,the retinaremains inactive), "a littleseltzer for this juice theycall wine. The acidityis constrictingmy vocal chords.I stillneed themtonight." The prop mastersbring on thesoda water,but thecurtain is already rising.The soda nevermakes it to thetable and glass.The performing singerconcentrates on nothingother than rehearsed movements and his voice. Throughthe eyes of a powerfullyvoiced farmer'sboy, the historicalScarpia looks out ofinactive retinas like a visitorinto an alien physicalworld.

Scarpiaas Male Body Anticipatingthe heat of the day, the police chiefin the Palazzo Farneseis awakeearly - aroundfive o'clock. A filmof sweat covers his body althoughit is stillcool outside.The thinsheet thrown aside, he considershis sexual tools alongsidethe surgeof a digestivetract hid- den by his vaultingstomach; he cannotcoordinate these instruments. Above the stomachpit, the bellows- air fromthe Albanianmoun- tains- indicatethat Scarpia is alive; unassisted,this part of his body risesand fallsas thepolice chiefwatches. Scarpia gets up and washes, coolingthe film of sweat away. His eyesare clear,without excessive interest.He considersthe state as a coordinatingor unifyingessence, its outerboundaries "assailed" by Bonaparte- a metaphorfor the rash to-and-fromarching of the bodies comprisingFrench troops; these troops,however, marching as an entirebody, presumablyalready underwaynow at fiveo'clock in the morning.As Scarpia envisions thesebodies - the snoutsof armedcolumns, legs, digestive systems, heads upon necks,necks linked to spines,and theseextended by knap- sacksand weapons - he drawsfrom this image suppliedby theene- my a unifyingframework to integratethe centrifugalmake-up of his bodythis morning. He looksfor the red dawn spreadover the Roman city("l'aube") and findsit beyondthe silk-drapedwalls of the Farnese Hotel, whereit takesshape forthe wakingmind and contributesto Scarpia'sunification even if he is unawareof it. Meanwhile, the French soldiers carry single-mindedly their sexual tools - superfluous in times of war - like knapsacks; that is, as ballast dating from the

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AlexanderKluge 131 millenia,field-packs needed forthe occupation of Rome. Theydo not experiencethe doubts of the police chief,who wonderswhether this piss-pipeis in factmeant for pleasure as well, though he himself wouldn'trequire such a thingin orderto achievethose unifying over- views.All thesame, he cannotjust cut it offthe same wayhe can close one ofhis securitydepartments, or delegateor forgetorders to his subordinates.On the contrary,the pressureof his colon fromthe left causes his penisto swellso thatScarpia cannot piss withoutan accom- panyingfeeling of desire- his penis largeand swollendue to a me- chanicalmisunderstanding among the organs.The dissociationof the rulercorresponds to the associationof the ruled. If he now thoughtit more importantthan something else - just as one sends spies out on patrolhoping that the suspectedprey will be roused and somehow betrayitself - Scarpia could make use of the mechanicalexpansion of the organ by forcinghimself, for example, to thinkof the divineTosca. He would have to imaginethat the singer was lookingat him or thinkingabout him.This would be a misunderstanding,though suitable for eliciting a feelingof desire so thatthe arousedmember, plagued by itsdissociation from the body, could recall its ancientor medievalability and venturean eruption.The cun- ningScarpia can do withoutthis kind of solution- thisis notthe path to unification.Rather, unity could be achievedby blackmailing the ac- tualTosca, a proudwoman who would certainlynot be thinkingof the police chief,a womanwho derivesher powerfrom the divinity of her voice, and who is not thereto awakensexual desire. The nextday, however, what he withgood reasonhad denied him- selfgets in his way once he has Tosca lockedin his officialchambers and talksto her insistently,which brings him in physicalproximity to her.She kneelsbefore him so thathe, circlingaround her in thisdivine posture,ends up behindher back (and thiswould appear indecent,if he caredto look,so she would thenscoot around on herknees to face himfrontally again). He shovesher slightly so thatshe fallsforward into a positionthe spies had occasionallyembroidered upon in theirreports and whichhe, had his trousersbeen unbuttonedin themeanwhile and had she remainedstill, could haveexploited in a primordialmanner as ifhe werea goator a hare,or a Frenchsoldier during a lull in thefighting and so forth.Instead, the penis stuckin his trousersbecomes smeared at the tip witha fluid - not sperm and not urine, rathera lubricant; but it fails to make anythingglide through the silk trousers,

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 132 On Opera,Film, and Feelings whichare difficultto open, so thatScarpia, annoyed with this brazen autonomy,no longerfeels the diva's magicand loses his desireas ifit miscarried.As a consequence,he proceedswith the blackmail, this de- ceitfulseduction - not because he hopes to gain some eroticadvan- tageover the diva, but rather in orderto gethis mind to prevail,which, sincethe early morning, had been at odds withhis penis.This is how he died,without having the original reason at his disposalthat outside observerswould have ascribedto his actions.Even withoutTosca's knife,he would not have reachedhis objectivein the affair.In fact,it was neveractually his objective, rather there were objectives in the affair thatdisintegrated into different situations as soon as theyneared practical realization.He had already feltthe catastrophecoming that morning.If he hadn'tdied in thisadventure, he would havedisgraced himselfwith impotence. In hislast hour he wascompletely unable to desire: death was only anotherannoyance in the face of this failure.He carriedno "marshal'sbaton in his knapsack."Precisely this is whathe died of: a confusion,so to speak.

Cavaradossi'sarrest.

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It is wellknown that the divine Tosca was veryeasily carried away by jealousy, probablybecause she had learnedto expressthis emotion so wellvia hermany operatic roles, and no one had everbothered to teach her another;roused merelyby the conductor'sbaton, she could emit thisexpression on cue. It is possiblethat, anticipating her aging,she fearedher death so muchthat she could nottolerate even a momentary infringementon herdominion and thereforehastened to attackthe dis- loyalMario withthe authorityof the police; the police,with regard to Rome's stateenemies, would not have done otherwise.Scarpia took ad- vantageof this weaknessof Tosca's when he displayedthe fan of Angelotti'ssister, knowing full well that the diva would not give up until the miserable Mario - who would have lefther soon anyway- was sittingin thetorture chamber, until Angelotti's hide-out was revealed,and thefates of all involvedwere sealed, that is, until she had an explanation ofthe fan's origin. Now, a highlytalented prima donna can be trained not onlyin the automaticoutpouring of so-calledemotion, but also in the artof imperturbability.Therefore, at thispoint, she cannotbe unmasked.Nobody, not even Scarpia, has thepower to liftthe mask off heractions in advanceof the catastrophe. Thus, Scarpia's death was pre- determined,as was Mario'sdeath, and Tosca's end, too. And Tosca, as a police chiefof her emotions,also had counter- strategiesat hand.Thus, worried that in theexcitement of the moment a wrongbreath might tear open her tight-fittingEmpire gown, she could have held back her confessionwhile Mario was torturedfor threequarters of a minutelonger - forat the end of thisperiod her hero would have fainted,and the Roman judge, havingeye contact withthe diva of whose power outside the courthe was well aware, would break offthe torturein such a moment,following the secret protocol- thenAngelotti's hide-out would not have been revealedto the Roman police. Onlydays later the Frenchcuirassiers would move into the city:the drama would have been cancelled. Nevertheless, Tosca and Mario cannot avoid the tragicending, since any other courseof actionwould have led to the singer'saging, to an insoluble intimatedispute, or to a phase of mutualindifference. The plot of the opera cannotgo forwardif the dressis torn. Besides,the judge runningthe torture session had made his own cal- culations.Arriving in the small torturechamber - whereone of the make-up artistsdribbled red paint over the forehead and cheeks of the tenor,where the stage-managerwas directingthe score of the cries of

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 134 On Opera,Film, and Feelings pain fromthe wings, where deputy Roberti was busytrying to open a stagedoor thatonly opened fromthe outside - thejudge thoughtof his future,in whichTosca, very highly thought of in Naples,might whis- pera fewwords to theQueen abouthis conduct in thetorture chamber, whichcould decide the course of his career. He was notinterested in the ignominioustask he had to perform.Hence, the look he exchangedwith theGoddess as he leftScarpia's chambers was appeasing:"I willdo no morethan carry out theletter of theorder. No additionalpain shallbe inflictedby theknaves." He promised,as itwere, the correct execution of the order.The Goddess,however, had reasonsthat prevented her fromtrusting her calculating, secret partisan. She did notrecognize his long-terminterests. That is whyshe and Scarpiahad to die.

Scarpia/lbsca:Exchange of Characters Likean intelligentmonkey, a primadonna becomesfamiliar with the charactersshe performs.All the same, these characters are minor next to the actual movementof the music. Tosca, who does not see herself onstagebut ratherhas Scarpia in view,is thus able to get to know Scarpia'sinternal systems of negotiationbetter than he. For thecharac- teristicsof Rome's chiefof police havea historicalorigin; they carry the heavyweight of thesereal conditions within themselves - a weightthat producesa counter-characteron itsunderside so thatScarpia is actually notat all Scarpiawhen he triesto playhimself. Tosca, however, would be in theposition to playher antagonist unburdened by the earthly weight ofthe character. For once in hislife, Scarpia would like to be able to relax his vigil,to lose his head and his body completely(out of happiness about thereunion, like a discoverer),but in thelong run, he wouldlike to stickto the treaties. Therefore, he mustdefend the basic treaty of the old regimewith force - somethingthe ancien regime is not able to sustain.In contrast,as an unrealmask acquired by learning, Tosca is ableto presentthese character traits purely, with a de-dramatizingeffect. No- bodywill die before their time if she plays Scarpia. And she brings a slice ofeternal life into the vicinity of the police office. YetTosca is an ice-coldbitch: in otherwords, she is diva,a goddess. She sees Scarpia'sgenital confusion almost as ifhe werewearing no clothes;she supplies a causefor his daily travails. This bachelor, whose emotionallife proceeds sometimes in fast-motion,sometimes in slow, would have reallyenjoyed taking a sliceof eternallife for himself, and theimpatience of such unaccustomed desire (what does theoverworked

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AlexanderKluge 135 man knowof desire?) makes him feel like tearing his hairout. Here the cleverTosca mighthelp; havingalready appeared as a musicalinstruc- tor,she knowshow to plyher unifying or day-breakingmagic not only on a spoiledboy, but also on thisreal man lyingfallow. All themore so sinceshe knowsthat her dominion of art must not be a republicof pleasure,but can onlybe establishedas a monarchy,lest she be robbed by theyounger and quite capable Tazzi. This is whyshe sacrificesAngelotti, already as good as lost,and the dumb dog Mario as well,who - withoutany regardfor her and with minimaldesire, since he wouldrather be paintingoils - gothimself en- tangledin politicalactivities. Through timely betrayals and caresses(only bothtogether create magic) she obtainsthe trust of the aging man, even thoughshe willtrade him later for a Napoleonicgeneral - buthe cannot knowthis in advance. All of this could have been cleverand in line withthe Goddess's contractualrelations, but turned out to be impossiblebecause itwould have used up all thediva's energyin real relationships.Yet, her devo- tionis primarilyto her art,as in thecantata from earlier that evening. She is thereforeunable to conjure up in this inappropriateofficial room thereal affair for which she yearnswith the real Scarpia. Rather, she musthang onto thechild Mario, onto a relationshipthat demands less realityand servesas a kindof leftovercuisine for what remains afterthe diva is done singing.Thus, it is not Naturethat prevents her frombringing the dramatic action to a happyending and avoidingthe opera, but rather,she failsbecause she had alreadyexpended her di- vinityin Art.

An ImaginaryGuide to theOpera: Commentary on Opera and Television5

"Distance," "Vision,"140 Barsof The Valkyrie Adomo talksabout the disintegrationof materials.6What does this mean? It refersto a newlyawakened interest in precision,concentration,

5. From"Ein imaginirerOpernfiihrer,"Jahrbuch derHamburgischen Staatsoper 1984- 1988 (Hamburg:Intendanz der HamburgischenStaatsoper, 1988). 6. Theodor W. Adorno,Asthetische Theorie (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1973) 31.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 136 On Opera,Film, and Feelings correlation,details, metamorphosis - in effect,classical virtues that worksof art have had fora longtime. Take, for instance, the final scene fromthe librettoof Carmen,which the impresarioRobert Schulz has heard218 times,and whichI mayhave heard about 40 times.But it never occurredto me thatCarmen speaks of herselfas an independentob- server,a perceptive,objective witness to herown deadlyfate: "Carmen neverlied. Her soul remainsfirm. It's overbetween her and you." Chil- drenspeak this way, too, as ifthey were standing beside themselves; and yet,for Carmen, the speech - whichbegins with "I" - playsa decisive role in the finalconfrontation. Due to the musicalagitation of thisse- quence,I do notnotice the verbal nuances. Having searched Merimse's talefor the origin of thefascination with the Carmentopic, I turnedto the libretto.For my ear the wordsfinally became clearonly when the prompters,in thiscase two women,spoke the lines of Jose and the brightvoice of the actress Sabine Wegener responded offstage. Carmen's textis enhancedif I don'tsee an imagewith it. Josh's text demands atten- tionif it is spokenby someone of the other sex (whois playinga partthat doesn'tbelong to thedrama). In bothcases, information and imagesare reducedor neutralizedto a certainextent. A similareffect can be achievedfor the musical parameters by creating sound perspectives:just as the individualmusician seated in the midstof his or her colleaguesdoes not hearthe total sound of the or- chestrabut onlythose parts of the score played by the musicians in his or her vicinity,I can place microphonesin such a mannerthat in a Wagner-orchestra,for instance,only the cello, contrabass,and bass drum,or, for that matter, any other group are extremelyforegrounded. Such proceduresseem to suggestan artisteddmoliseur. However, by pushingthe material to theverge of disintegration,one also opens up newqualities within it. Wagner's score now soundslike chamber music. It would be possiblethus to createfragments and use themto adapt raw materialof a second nature- such as the librettoWagner wrote but neverset to musicon the subjectof Wielandthe Blacksmith. Thereare about85,000 operas. As we know,roughly 180 ofthese can be heardon theopera stagesand onlya smallportion thereof make up the repertory.One could cultivatea curiosityfor the forgottenscores. Butone could also do somethingelse: one could focuson thevery ele- mentsof the repertory,on whatAdorno calls the subcutaneousstruc- ture,in such a way thata novel typeof work emerges. In thatsense, the 140 bars of the overture in Act I of The Valkyriemay constitutean

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AlexanderKluge 137 autonomouswork. This work "serves" to describea situation,a wooded area,a thunderstorm,someone on therun, the pursuers, until the cur- tainis raisedon page fiveof the piano score."The stageremains empty fora while,the stormoutside about to abate." But if one ignoresthis servingfunction - sincethe materials are disintegratinganyway - the musicassumes the formal attributes of a sonata;no doubt,it is absolute musicwhich was neverreducible to a descriptivefunction anyway.

The genreof the opera guide harborsa literaryform that has so far been insufficientlyutilized. Nobody would confuse the text of the opera withthe guide itself.The opera guide thuspermits a perspectivalfore- shorteningwhich - ifone wereto groupdiverse operas, as itwere, in a longshot - could elucidateaffinities among opera motifs. This is hardly possiblein dramaticworks that move the audience, especially not during the nightson whichthey exert maximum effect.7 Adorno thereforesuggested in a privatecircle in 1964 that one should writeimaginary guides to the opera; that is, shortversions of operas thatdon't exist.These abstractscould thenbe offeredto composers who would setthem to music.To supporthis argument - and to over- whelmhis hesitantinterlocutors - Adornoput forwardthe following example. As an opera machine,a social event,a musicalform bur- dened withprescriptions, the operaseria of the 18thcentury was no longercapable of development.A dinosaur.The factthat - according to thecanon ofthis genre - onlygods, Romans, and aristocratsquali- fied as dramaticcharacters explains this situationonly superficially; rather,it was the importanceof thesesoirees, the "realismof the social estates,"that rested on the genrelike a nightmare.The intermissions, however,were filledby "entr'acte"pieces (such as Pergolesi'sLa Serva Padrona)of eight to twelveminutes that featured servants, cooks, figaros. These "unrealistic"pieces or echoesthen served as thecore from which at leastItalian opera was revivedvia composerssuch as Bellini,Doni- zetti,Verdi, and again producedmonumental works.

7. Bycontrast, this is possiblewith performances that fail. Thus, I once had theop- portunityof "seeing" theaffinities implied in II Trovatoreduring a performanceof the opera at the MunicipalTheater of Mainz in the 1950s,because all threeprotagonists had a bad cold and theannouncements to thateffect disrupted the dramatic tension be- foreevery act.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 138 On Opera,Film, and Feelings

Consideringthis development, modem opera,now at theend ofthe 20thcentury, would not consistof an imitationof the greatrepertory operas.The searchfor the needle in TheMarriage of Figaro, for instance, thedesperation at notfinding it, would sufficeas a sketchfor an opera plot.A seriesof such plots could fillan entireevening, though the individual sketchcan be as briefas one of the "momentsmusicaux." It is enoughif such a moment"flares up." Thereis no timelimit either way. This emancipationfrom the "time of a rewardingevening for the edu- cated,propertied classes of the 19thcentury" creates the condition for serialprocedures, and as well forcategories of authenticity,thorough- ness,stringency, etc.

III

Television(like broadcasting in general)achieves its greatest effects in a naturalistickey. A televisionprogram (Fernsehprogramm) which shows nothingat a distance(Ferne) but representseverything as ifin close immediacy- a windowwhich neither affords a look outsidenor reflects anythinginside but instead is crammedfull of program - obeysthe re- alityprinciple; even thechildren's films are grown-up.This is thecru- cial distinctionbetween television and musicaltheater or cinema.Ope- ra in particularhas learnedto breakthrough the barriers of the realistic gaze by means of emotions. As faras I know,no operashave as yetbeen composedfor television. This confirmsmy hypothesis that operas import into television chunks ofanti-realism. They neither look likethe normal television diet, nor do theyshare the gravitationsof opera performances.I wonder how the firstnotes of such messages in a bottlewill sound in a strangemedium, or fromthe perspectiveof the opera house, "froma distance." "Hope is mydesire: what I love,has to be as faraway as heaven- - -"

Translatedby Sara S. Poorand MiriamHansen

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:46:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions On MisunderstandingHabermas: A Responseto Rajchman

RichardWolin

One does notneed a Ph.D. in contemporaryAmerican fiction to de- cipherthe allusion contained in thetitle ofJohn Rajchman's review of JiurgenHabermas's ThePhilosophical Discourse of Modernity, "Habermas's Complaint."''The referenceis clearlyto the masturbation-obsessed protagonistof PhilipRoth's 1968 novel,Alexander Portnoy, who also had a "complaint."The theoreticalimplications of Rajchman'switty literaryanalogy, moreover, are spelled out clearlyon virtuallyevery page of his review:viz., that Habermas, like his fictionalalter ego, suf- feredsome childhoodtrauma that explains his "phobic" revulsionof so-called "irrationalist"philosophical paradigms. "Where does this phobia of irrationalitycome from?"Rajchman asks plaintivelyat the beginningof his review(164). And a fewpages laterwe are told that, "In his phobia, Habermas conflatesthe irrationalwith philosophical irrationalism"(171). The ironiesof this polemical tack are almosttoo prodigiousfor words. Rajchman,the Foucault-advocate(and authorof a commendableshort book on the latter2),adopts the rhetoricalstrategy of suggestingthat

1. NewGerman Critique 45 (Fall 1988) 163-191.All subsequentpage referenceswill appear in parenthesisin the text. For fourreviews which share many of Rajchman'sobjections to Habermas's reading of the poststructuralists,see the "Symposiumon JiurgenHabermas's 'The Philo- sophicalDiscourse of Modernity"'(with contributions by F. Dallmayr,J.M. Bernstein, C. Norris,and D.C. Hoy) in PraxisInternational 8 (1989): 377-464. For a reviewthat is much more sympatheticto Habermas'sproject, see MartinJay in Historyand Theory1 (1989): 94-112. 2. MichelFoucault: The Freedom of Philosophy (New York:Columbia UniversityPress, 1985).

139

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 140 MisunderstandingHabermas

Habermas's criticalperspective on poststructuralistthought is patho- logical in origin;and thatsuch depth-psychologicalexplanations - ratherthan the innerlogic of the intellectualmatters at issue - offer privilegedinsight into the basis ofHabermas's "complaint" against his Frenchcontemporaries. Of course,all ofthis essentially boils downto a shallowinstance of tu quoquereasoning. If Habermas's differenceswith Foucaultet al. are "phobic" (Rajchman'sterm), they have an "irrational"basis in unconscious or repressedmental processes. And thus,according to Rajch- man, it is not Foucault,as Habermaspurportedly tells us, who stands guiltyof "irrationalism,"but Habermas himself,since his criticisms are driven by an uncontrollablepsychological compulsion. Or as Rajchman'samateurish efforts at lay analysissuggest: it was Haber- mas's youthfulexperiences with National Socialism that left him with an exaggeratedfear of "irrationalism" in all itsforms; and itis thisear- ly traumathat explains his misplacedanxieties vis-A-vis contemporary Frenchthought. Yet, after all thatFoucault has taughtus, fromMadness and Civilizationon, about the prejudicialnature of clinicalcategoriza- tions,the argument that if someone takes issue with your position, this can best be explainedprimarily in termsof certainontogenetic disturb- anceswould seem a monumentalact of bad faith. At thesame time,one of theessential claims of myrejoinder will be thatthe rationalism/irrationalism dichotomy on whichRajchman prima- rilyrelies to explicateHabermas's argument in ThePhilosophical Discourse of Modernityis both unproductive and misleading.It is unproductiveinsofar as itresults in an ever-escalatingexchange of sterile charges and counter- charges:thus Rajchman responds to the(perceived) claims of poststruc- turalistirrationalism by characterizingHabermas's theory of communicativeaction as merelyanother variant of dogmatic rationalism - an al- legationthat is equallyfalse. It is misleadinginsofar as it misrepresents thephilosophical argument and intentionsof Habermas's text, which is neithera chronicleof "self-defeating philosophies," nor an accountof "a vast intellectualfailure"(169), nor a "war" (declaredor undeclared) against"philosophical irrationalism." In fact,Habermas himself is ex- ceedinglysparing in his use ofthe term "irrationalism." The worditself is never,to myknowledge, applied directly to thework of either Foucault or Derrida.It would ofcourse be misleadingto underestimatethe pro- foundand fundamentaldifferences that separate Habermas from his French and German interlocutors.Yet to read Rajchman's review,one

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RichardWolin 141 would thinkthat The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity represents a veri- table and sustainedjihad againstirrationalist thought. Moreover,although Rajchman would like to read ThePhilosophical Discourseas "an intellectualhistory of postwarFrench philosophy" - i.e.,exclusively as "a book on neostructuralism"(166) - in truth,the "neostructuralists"do not make an appearancein the book untilthe seventhchapter (on Bataille);and among the twelvelectures that com- prisethe book, onlyfour (in additionto a lengthyDerrida-excursus) are devoteddirectly to theirwork. Thus, althoughthe contemporary vogue of the poststructuralistcritique of reasonmay well have served as the main stimulusbehind Habermas's labor of theoreticalrecon- struction,at the same time,the "discourseof modernity"under consideration- whichbegins with Hegel and ends withNiklas Luhmann - is decidedlymore complex. Before I address several of the legitimatesubstantive criticisms Rajchmanbrings to bear againstHabermas's study,I wish to return momentarilyto the pervasiveand prejudicial"rhetorical" dimension of his review.I view thisdimension as unfortunate,since it tendsto displacewhat might have insteadbeen a fruitfulillumination of specific limitationsof Habermas'stheoretical standpoint and thusshort-cir- cuita potentiallyinteresting debate. Rajchman makes promising over- tures in this direction:for example, when he points out that in Habermas'snarrative, "there is nothingabout thequestions of sexuality,the body, language, and gender"(166) thathave been centralcon- cernsin the workof the poststructuralists.Here it would have been fruitfulto show- in termsthat would transcendthe simplistic accusa- tionthat Habermas is an incorrigible"rationalist" - theconcrete, in- ternal-theoreticalreasons as to whysuch themes have found so littleat- tentionin Habermas's own critiqueof power and domination.But such pointsare rarelyfollowed through, and instead,the substantive mattersat issue tendto be obscuredby polemical/rhetoricaloverkill.3

3. In addition,it might have been fruitfulto pointout thatFoucault seemed to lay thebasis fora trulyproductive rapprochement with the tradition of CriticalTheory in lateressays such as "Whatis Enlightenment?",where he seeksto inserthis own philosophical concernsin a theoreticaltradition that reaches "from Hegel throughNie- tzsche or Max Weber to Horkheimeror Habermas." Cf. TheFoucault Reader, ed. P. Rabinow(New York:Pantheon, 1984), p. 32. Moreover,in one of his essayson Foucault,"Taking Aim at the Heart of the Pres- ent,"Habermas explicitly recognizes the common ground that seemed to emergebe- tweenthe two as a resultof Foucault'slater writings. For Foucault,in attemptingto

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 142 MisunderstandingHabermas

Thus, accordingto Rajchman'sreading of Habermas,"the French have become the bad RomanticGermans" (163-64). His theoretical grievancesagainst his Frenchcontemporaries are explicableinsofar as, "The evilof Germanfascism has shownus, ifwe needed to be shown, thatall irrationalistor relativistforms of thought are dangerouserrors" (163). For Habermas,according to Rajchman,"'irrationalism' always leads in modernsocieties to fascism"(179). And further:it is Haber- mas's "ferventconviction that the only way to secureourselves against a recurrenceof fascismis by an unconditionalcommitment to a universalistrationalist philosophy" (171). I cannotbut regard claims of thisnature as bizarre,as strangelyout oftouch with the theoretical de- batesat issue. Is thetrue ground of Habermas'sposition really the experienceof NationalSocialism, as Rajchmanimplies? Can thebasis of his critiqueof contemporary French thought really be reducedto such fatuous"guilt-by-association" arguments? (Moreover, in whatway can Germanfascism be considered"relativist"?). In pointof fact,whereas Rajchman'sclaims concerning the fascism/irrationalismnexus might hold in the case of Lukatcs'sThe Destruction of Reason4 - where it is argued in the case of a specificallyGerman historical context that "irrationalist"forms of thoughtabetted the triumph of a fascistpoliti- cal structure- theyseem to possessvery little explanatory value with referenceto the Habermas text under consideration.And though Rajchmanwould liketo interpolatea "fearof fascism" as thehidden, foundationalsubtext of Habermas's entire discussion of contemporary Frenchphilosophy, one is at a loss to identifythe least bit of textual ev- idence to supportthis claim. When Habermas does allow himselfto speculatebriefly about poststructuralistpolitical sentiments, he makes referencenot to fascism,but to a "primordialanarchism" (PDM 4). More- over,it could well be thatpoststructuralism is philosophically significant,but - as RichardRorty or StanleyFish might put it - "political- ly withoutconsequences." All too often,though, it seems like Rajch- man is reviewingLukdtcs's 1952 "demonology"(Agnes Heller) instead of the Habermasbook itself.And whilethis approach might make for raise once more the question about the meaningof Enlightenmentthat Kant had posed twocenturies earlier, thematizes Habermas's central concern in PhilosophicalDis- courseand otherworks: viz., the unique qualityof the modernage, which,unlike any other, must provide its own normativeself-justification (Selbstvergewisserung). The Habermas essayis reprintedin Foucault:A CriticalReader, ed. David C. Hoy (Oxford: Basil Blackwell,1986) 103-108. 4. AtlanticHeights, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1981.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RichardWolin 143 provocativeand gratifyingpolemics, it is oflittle help in identifyingthe legitimateintellectual differences that are at stakein the debate - my chiefobjection to Rajchman'smethod and mode of presentation. The specious chargethat Philosophical Discourse represents a global struggleagainst philosophical irrationalism sets up theequally illusory characterizationof Habermas'sown theoryas a typeof superficialra- tionalism.The problem here is that the theoreticalspecificity of Habermas's philosophicalproject never comes intoview. Instead, all we supposedlyneed to knowis thatHabermas is a "rationalist";the in- tellectualintolerance of his positionseems a self-evidentconsequence of thislabel. Thus, we are told thatHabermas embraces "a rationalist conceptionof reason:judgment by unassailablestandards, or according to criterialaid downprior and independably[sic] of discussion" (171). He is the advocateof "a line to be unanimouslyrepeated by all 'rational' agents"(171). Finally,Habermas falls victim to theillusion that "there are historicalmodels and assumptionswhich cannot be contestedor 'falsified'.. ."(179). Sufficeit to say thatanyone who is the least bit acquainted with Habermas'sdiscourse ethic would findthe foregoing descriptions im- plausibleand misleading.They yield a woefullyreductionist image of Habermas as an inflexiblerationalist - as thoughthe Hegel-critique of PhilosophicalDiscourse (in a mannerthat parallelsthe argumentof Knowledgeand Human Interests) did not make his differenceswith tradi- tionalphilosophical rationalism abundantly clear. Contraryto Rajch- man's argument("[Habermas] thinks there are historicalmodels and assumptionswhich cannot be contestedor 'falsified"'),the conception ofcommunicative ethics set forth by Habermasis eminently"fallibilis- tic."The counterfactualideal thisconception recommends for the cre- ationof just politicalnorms is thatno normwould be validthat could not be agreed upon in practicaldiscourse by all thosewho would be affectedby thenorm. In thismodel, there are no normsthat are privi- leged,none thatwould be exemptfrom the processof discursivere- demption.Nor are therenorms that would be a prioriruled out as un- acceptable- exceptpossibly those that would systematicallyinterfere withthe right of all argumentsor pointsof view to be heard. Ratherit is the communicationcommunity of those affectedthat is charged withthe responsibilityof determiningthe normsand formsof lifein accordancewith which they would live.In truth,it would be difficultto imagine an ethical theory or an ideal of justice that would be more

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 144 MisunderstandingHabermas open, tolerant,and democratic.And thus,the claim that there is a cov- ertappeal to "unassailablestandards" or "criterialaid down priorand independablyof discussion" is entirelydelusive. Instead, the discourse ethicis designedprecisely to surmountan appeal to standardsand crite- ria that would be treatedas validprior to discussion; e.g., those advocated by the Hegelian conceptionof Sittlichkeitand whichhave come into vogue again recentlyamong the so-calledneo-Aristotelians or "com- munitarians"(MacIntyre, Sandel, etc.). If one honestlyexamines its presuppositionsrather than relying upon prejudicialcliches, it seems inarguablyclear thatthe discourseethic, instead of beinga dogmatic rationalism,represents an impassionedand principledjustification of politicalpluralism. This is trueprecisely by virtue of its "formalism" or "proceduralism,"which in principleremains compatible with an in- finitevariety of practicalnorms or "formsof life."Moreover, only a "formalistic"approach to ethicssuch as Habermas's can be truly pluralistic,since it in no wayattempts to prejudgethe content of the de- cisionsthat are ultimatelyreached. He is awarethat the latterwill al- waysbe in largemeasure contingent upon the contextand traditions of the specificdiscursive community in question.5 Rajchmantells us (171) thatone can be opposed to "rationalism" withoutbeing an "irrationalist"- and who would disagree? But Rajchmanfails to recognize(at leastin Habermas'scase) thatone can be a defenderof "rationalagreement" and be a thoroughgoingplural- ist- and thatin fact,the discourse ethic might well be thesurest phil- osophicalvindication of pluralismwe have. The essentiallynon-dogmatic character of Habermasianreason is made eminentlyclear in his discussionof the "praxis philosophy" held in commonby theyoung Marx as wellas 20th-centuryadvocates of Marxisthumanism (PDM, 75ff.).Both partiesremain tied to the model of self-positingsubjectivity advocated by theearly Hegel, which in thework of Marxbecomes the "production paradigm." But Haber- mas is mistrustfulof neo-Marxistattempts to posit a macro-subject thatwould be capable of transcendingthe divisionsof contemporary society- theseparation between man and nature,subject and object, etc. - forsuch attemptspresent the riskof a "de-differentiation"of thevalue spheresof themodern world. In Habermas'swork, like that

5. Foran extremelylucid account of the discourse ethic, see StephenK. White,The RecentWork ofJiirgen Habermas (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1988) 48ff.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RichardWolin 145 ofhis poststructuralist adversaries, we find,upon carefulexamination, a healthysuspicion of "totalization."His respectfor the independent va- lidityclaims of the various "value spheres"of modem lifeis thusanoth- er importantexample of his persistentskepticism vis-at-vis the claims of totalizingapproaches to reason.To confusehis theorieswith the latter, therefore,would onlyserve to distortand misrepresentthem. Habermas's fundamentalargument in PhilosophicalDiscourse, which receivesa thoroughsociological grounding in TheTheory of Communica- tiveAction (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 1984, 1987),6is thatthe paradigm of Westernmodernity contains certainaporias as well as certain strengths.The centralproblem with the post-Hegelianphilosophical discourseof modernityin his viewis thatinstead of pursuingan im- manentconfrontation with the diremptionsof modernity,this discourse,beginning with Nietzsche, has soughtredemption via a wholesale leap beyondthe modem age and itsaporias. This is suggestedby thediscussions of "postmodernism"that in recentyears have been as- sociatedwith the names of these(predominantly French) thinkers. In thissense, his objectis less an "acrimonious""declaration of war on his Parisiancontemporaries" (165) than an intellectuallyhonest attemptto definethe theoretical limitations and risksof thepoststructu- ralistcritique of modernity. Like othersbefore him, Rajchmanperpetuates the misconception thatHabermas views the neostructuralists as essentially "neoconservatives."7In fact,in "Modernityversus Postmodernity,"8 Habermas refersto the Frenchintellectual lineage that "leads fromBataille via Foucaultto Derrida"not as neo-conservative,but as a variantof "young

6. In my opinion,one of Rajchman'smajor interpretivefailings is his refusalto understandthe work under review in relationto thesociological theory of modernity elaboratedin TheTheory ofCommunicative Action. And thus,for example, one encounters theerroneous claim that "His [Habermas's]is a purelyintellectual, even Idealist history;one learnslittle of thedevelopments in societythat might have been linkedto the variousphilosophical errors" (169). Surelythe most cursory familiarity with The Theory ofCommunicative Action - in whichthe theoryof modernitydiscussed in Philosophical Discoursereceives a thoroughgoingsocio-historical grounding - would haveprevented such an elementarymisstatement. That Rajchman'sentire review fails to containa single referenceto Habermas's 1981 workwould seem a glaringomission. 7. "He [Habermas]says that the neostructuralistsare structuralneoconservatives (i.e.,neo- two thingswhich don't have much in common)" (166-67). 8. NewGerman Critique 22 (Winter1981) 3-14. The term"young conservative" is in- tendedas an allusionto like-mindedGerman thinkers of the 1920s - thebest example would be ErnstJiinger- who "on thebasis ofmodernistic attitudes ... justifyan irreconcilableanti-modernism." Ibid 13.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 146 MisunderstandingHabermas conservatism."By thisterm he means somethingquite specific:the embrace of an intractable"anti-modernist" (or anti-enlightenment) stancewhose originsmay be foundin the critiqueof modernitypro- pounded by theleading exponents of aestheticmodernism - Baude- laire,Rimbaud, Joyce, the surrealists - a critiquethat concentrates on the insufferablereifying effects of the logic of modernization.Haber- mas himselfhas on severaloccasions emphatically endorsed the de- fetishizingideal of "profaneilluminations," the conceptionof a de- centeredsubjectivity, advanced by thismodern, post-auratic conceptionof aestheticexperience.9 He becomescritical, however, when this experienceof aesthetic modernism is transformed into the ground and basis fortheoretical discourse ingeneral, the essential philosophical precedent forthis theoretical move beingNietzsche's appeal in TheBirth of Tragedy fora "poetic Socrates."This neo-Nietzscheanattempt to generalize the aestheticmoment becomes the focal point of his dispute with Derrida,above all, withreference to the latter'sattempt to invalidate the genre-distinctionbetween philosophyand literature.10It also makesitself felt at severalkey junctures in Foucault'sdevelopment: his celebrationof the four"mad poets" (Htlderlin,Novalis, Nietzsche, and Artaud)at theconclusion of Madness and Civilization,as well as his optionfor an "aestheticsof existence"in the last two volumesof La volont6de savoir.' In Habermas'sview, therefore, the poststructuralist critique of modernityis definitelydistinct from that of the neo-conservatives,yet it unexpectedlycomplements the latter in an importantregard. What the twoperspectives share is a rejection- albeit,proceeding from entirely differenttheoretical premises and temperaments- ofthe (universalistic) normativefoundations of modem politicallife. Thus, forexample, in theircritique of modem formsof rationality, the poststructuralists seem unwillingto differentiatebetween practical and instrumentalreason.

9. See forexample his replyto MartinJay in Habermasand Modernity, ed. RichardJ. Bernstein(Cambridge: Polity, 1984) 199-203. 10. I findRajchman's efforts to saveDerrida from this charge unconvincing (180ff.), and I thinkthe most cursoryreview of the Derrida-Searledebate will confirm Habermas's characterizationof Derrida's intentionsregarding the aforementioned genre-distinction.See Derrida,"Signature Event Context," in MarginsofPhilosophy (Chica- go: Universityof Chicago, 1982); Searle, "Reiteratingthe Differences:A Reply to Derrida,"Glyph 1 (1977) 198ff;and Derrida,"Limited Inc.," in Glyph12 (1977) 202ff 11. A good summationof Foucault'stheory of an "aestheticsof existence"may be foundin "On theGenealogy of Ethics: An Overviewof Work in Progress,"in TheFoucault Reader,340-372.

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Instead,both typesof rationalitytend to be subsumed underthe in- strumentalvariant, leading to a superficialidentification of reason with dominationtout court.12 Foucault's cynical equation of modem political normswith a repressiveprocess of disciplinary"normalization" (e.g., in Disciplineand Punish) serves as a good case in point,as does Derrida's critiqueof "logocentrism." But as a resultof this collapse of levels, the specificlogic of modernmoral-political rationality falls out of account - a logicthat may not be equated withtechnical rationality simpliciter. The neo-conservatives,on the otherhand, who advocate govern- mentby a technocraticelite, fear the authentically democratic implica- tionsof politicalmodernity. In starkcontrast to the poststructuralists and as advocatesof "technological modernization," they both endorse the global spread of instrumentalrationality and tend to be staunch criticsof the de-reifying, expressive-emancipatory qualities of aesthetic modernity,which is blamed fora dissolutionof the traditional protes- tant-entrepreneurialwork ethic.'3 In PhilosophicalDiscourse, Habermas veryclearly distinguishes between these two positions,poststructuralism and neoconservatism,that are at once verydifferent but comple- mentary.Thus, as we have alreadyseen, whereas he characterizesthe politicalattitudes of the French theorists as based on a "primordialanarchism,"neoconservatives tend to be advocatesof political technocra- cy.Instead of a conflationof these two prominent "postmodern" intel- lectualcurrents (not merely Lyotard, but manyneoconservative thinkers tendto be enthusiastsof a "posthistoire,"in which many of thenor- mativepresuppositions of modernityhave been renderedobsolete), we see thatHabermas carefullydifferentiates them. But despitethese important differences, he simultaneouslyinquires as to whetheror not,on one veryimportant point, they share some- thingessential: viz., a desireto outflankthe problemsof modernityby emphasizingone of its componentsat the expense of the othertwo: the poststructuralists,in their one-sided celebration of the virtuesof aestheticmodernity, the neoconservativesin theirexclusive endorse- mentof theeconomic-bureaucratic features of the modernage. Or as Habermas himselfcharacterizes this parallel dialectic:

12. This is also the chargeHabermas levelsagainst the argumentof Horkheimer and Adorno in the chapterhe devotes to The Dialecticof Enlightenment.See "The Entwinementof Mythand Enlightenment"(PDM 106-130). 13. See theargument of Daniel Bell in TheCultural Contradictions ofCapitalism (New York:Harper and Row, 1976).

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Boththeories of postmodernitypretend to havegone beyond thishorizon [of European modernity], tohave left it behind as the horizonof a pastepoch .... We cannotexclude from the outset thepossibility that neoconservatism and aestheticallyinspired an- archism,in the name of a farewellto modernity, are merely trying to revoltagainst it once again.It couldbe thatthey are merely cloakingtheir complicity with the venerable tradition of counter- Enlightenmentin the garb of post-Enlightenment (PDM 4-5).

Partof the problem in attemptingto assess the relativemerits of Habermas and the poststructuralistsis that they proceed fromsuch entirelydifferent theoretical traditions. Even in those relativelyfew momentswhen theirphilosophical concerns temporarily intersect, one feelsas thoughthey inhabit two entirely different intellectual uni- verses.To takeonly one example:whereas in TheOrder of Things, Kant is viewedas theinitiator of thosepernicious "sciences de l'homme"that become the ultimatebasis for modern,carceral societies, the Kant of Knowledgeand Human Interestsis the last philosopher to reflectin an au- thenticway on imperativesof a theoryof knowledge- a traditionof philosophicalinquiry that Habermas seeksto revive. It is clear,however, that for those who are interestedin compari- sons,it is to thework of Foucaultthat one mustturn. For at leastsince the so-calledgenealogical turn in his work,his theoreticalconcerns have overlappedwith those of Habermas in no smallmeasure. In es- sence,both have been centrallypreoccupied with a critiqueofdomination. As Tom McCarthyhas observed,"Habermas devotestwo lecturesto Foucault,and readersmight justifiably conclude thatin his dialogue withFrench poststructuralism, Foucault is thepreferred partner. More thanany other of the radical critics of reason, Foucault opens up a field of investigationfor social research;there is in his workno 'mystifica- tion' of social pathologiesinto the 'destinings'of thisor thatprimor- dial force"(PDM xiv).Here, too, it seemsthat Rajchman has misseda good opportunity.Though he remarksat one pointthat "there is common ground;these philosophers[Habermas and the poststructuralists]may have moreimportant enemies than each other"(165),this insight,too, remains undeveloped,scuttled amid effusivepolemics. However,the work of Habermas and Foucaultmay well prove mutual- ly complementaryin severalcrucial respects. It seems thatFoucault's own analysisof "power" fallsvictim to a series of debilitating aporias. Habermas has accused him of a

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"cryptonormativism"(PDM 276ff- perhapsnot the most felicitous choiceof words).By thishe meansthat during his genealogicalperiod, Foucaultis unable,in termsof the conceptual framework established by hisown theory, to accountfor the normative direction in whichthat the- oryitself pushes - viz.,an overturningof theomnipresent disciplinary mechanismsof the carceral society. This provesto be thecase insofaras Foucaultessentially accepts Nietzsche's cynical equation of "knowledge" and "power."There is no such thingas "truthitself," but onlyvarious regimesof truth that are recognizableamong the various social effects of power.Or as Foucaultremarks at one point:"every point in theexercise ofpower is at thesame timea sitewhere knowledge is formed.And con- verselyevery established piece ofknowledge permits and assuresthe ex- erciseof power."'"This insightis vigorouslyreaffirmed in "Nietzsche, Genealogy,and History,"where Foucault describes the intentions of the genealogicalmethod as follows:"The historicalanalysis of this rancorous will to knowledgereveals that all knowledgerests upon injustice(that thereis no right,even in theact of knowing,to truthor foundationfor truth)."'5And thus,any critique of dominationruns the riskof imme- diatelyfalling victim to thesame sinister,Nietzschean cycle of eternally self-supplantingpower formations.Any potentialcounter-power has only those methodsat its disposal thatare alreadythe characteristic meansof thereigning empire of domination.If this theory of theinner workingsof poweris correct,then, Habermas argues, "it mustdestroy thefoundations of the research inspired by it as well."Conversely, "if the truthclaims that Foucault himself raises for his genealogyof knowledge werein factillusory and amountedto no morethan the effects that this theoryis capable of releasingwithin the circle of itsadherents, then the entireundertaking of a criticalunmasking of the human sciences would lose itspoint" (PDM 279). Habermasthus emphasizes the normative deficiencies of Foucault's genealogicalmethod. However, there is an additionalmethodological failingthat is perhaps even more debilitatingfor the criticaland "emancipatory"intentions of his framework,a failingthat leaves us witha critiqueof dominationthat is in manyrespects self-cancelling. Forwant of a betterterm, we mayrefer to thisdimension as Foucault's

14. Foucault,"Power and Norm: Notes,"Michel Foucault: Power, Truth, Strategy, ed. M. Morrisand P. Patton(Sydney: Federal Publications, 1979) 62. 15. Language,Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews(Ithaca: Cornell, 1977) 163.

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"methodologicalobjectivism," which parallels his self-professed "felici- touspositivism" (and here,I happilyaccept Rajchman's corrective that bythis term Foucault is notreferring to an "objectivizingmethod," but to the"positivity of a domainof knowledge"). In themain, the problem may be describedas follows.Foucault undercutspotentials for re- sistanceto thereign of "bio-power" both on theside ofthe "object" - theanalysis of themechanisms of powerthemselves - and on thatof the "subject"- the potential"addressees" of his theory. Let us considerfirst the "subjective" side ofthe equation. Summarily put, Foucault'sdistrust of anthropocentricallyoriented approaches in thehuman sciences is so extremethat in his methodhe effacesthe po- tentialaddressees of his admittedly brilliant, material "unmaskings." He concentratesto such a degree on extirpatingthe last traces of epistemologicalsubjectivism from his analysesthat, by definition,there areno social actors left who mighttake up thevery real, constructive poten- tialsof his critique.Or as Foucaultproclaims at one point:"The human beingno longerhas anyhistory ... sincehe speaks,works, and lives,he findshimself interwoven in his own beingwith histories that are neither subordinateto him nor homogeneouswith him."'6 Similarly, the functionof an "author"may best be understoodaccording to Foucaultin termsof "themode of existence,circulation, and functioningof certain discourseswithin a society.""7But once the capacityfor action on the partof social actors is understoodexclusively in objectivisticterms (or, to use Foucault'spreferred expression, "positively") - i.e.,once theyare understoodas purelypassive repositories of variousprior social effects whichthoroughly structure, constitute, and shape themodem "self' - theexplanatory framework essentially denies in advanceany and every possibilityof historicalotherness and contestation.And thusthe potential "other"of poweris in Foucault'sframework epistemologically de- gradedto one of itsa priorimanifestations. In methodologicalterms, therefore, Foucault essentially views society throughthe lens of Bentham'spanopticon. His one-sidedpreference for"positive science" - as opposed to theanthropologically contami- nated,"interpretive" models - leads himto ignorean entiresociologi- cal traditionwhich alone could providehim with the theory of social ac- tionhis analysisof power so sorelylacks. Foucault thereby creates, as it were,his own "methodologicalprison."

16. Foucault,The Order of Things (London: Tavistock,1970) 369. 17. "What is an Author?",The Foucault Reader 108.

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This methodological deficiencyis then predictably complemented and reinforced by his own material analyses - the aforementioned "objective" side of the dilemma. It is at this point that his own thesis concerning the omnipresence of power in modern carceral societyre- turnsto meet his epistemological anti-subjectivismhalf-way. Although Rajchman points to certain of Foucault's later utterancesthat tend to minimize the monolithicityof disciplinarypower (above all, 177, note 16), such observations are the exceptions that prove the rule. There is no avoiding the fact that Foucault's genealogical studies point in the direction of an all-encompassing and virtuallyseamless network of bio-power. Or as Foucault himselfremarks at one point:

Thus theapparatus of sequestration fixes individuals to thepro- ductionapparatus by producing habits by means of a playof com- pulsions,teachings and punishments.This apparatusmust manu- facturea behaviourthat characterises individuals, it mustcreate a nexusof habitsthrough which the social "belongingness"of indi- vidualsto a societyis defined,that is, it manufacturessomething likenorms. ... While[the classical] apparatus brought forth mon- sters,the modem sequestrationmanufactures norms. Constitu- tionof labour-power,apparatus of sequestration:disciplinary society,permanent function of normalisation.That is the seriesthat characterisesour typeof society.'8

It would be difficultto deny that vis-a-visbourgeois society,Foucault adopts the Nietzschean standpointof "total critique": since bourgeois norms are reduced to the functionof providing a veneer of pseudo- humanisticlegitimation for the various disciplinarytechnologies, these societiesare devoid of a potentialfor "immanent critique": thereare no ideals of freedom, equality, and solidarityleft to redeem. Since for Foucault, like Adorno, "the whole is the untrue," a "solution" can be found only deus ex machina,i.e., non-immanendy.'9The only hints Foucault can give in thisrespect are vitalistic:e.g., the paean to "the body

18. "Powerand Norm: Notes" 65. 19. It is ironicthat Rajchman considersHabermas's theoryof communicative competenceas a deusex machinapostulate. But even ifone deniesthe theory of universal pragmaticsin termsof whichthis theory is grounded(and one mustdoubt from Rajchman'ssuperficial treatment of these issues how thoroughlyfamiliar he is with them),one can certainlypoint to a wealthof legal, constitutional, and normativestruc- turescharacteristic of modem societiesthat would suggestthe contentof the theory has a distinctbasis in reality.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 152 MisunderstandingHabermas and itspleasures," with which volume one of TheHistory ofSexuality con- dudes. Or the followingresponse taken from a 1977 interviewwith Bernhard-HenriIkvy: "we shouldbe able to rediscoverthe things them- selvesin theirprimordial vitality: behind asylum walls, the spontaneity of madness;in and throughthe penal system,the fertileunrest of delin- quency;beneath sexual prohibitions, the purity of desire."20 But I thinkit is clearthat despite whatever new vistas of socialcriticism have emerged as a resultof Foucault'sthematization of "bio-power,"any theory of social contestationthat tries to base itselfon "thebody and itspleasures," "the purityof desire,"or a "primordialvitality" is essentiallyself- cancelling.21The "aestheticsphere" (in theKierkegaardian sense) cannot be treatedas a self-evidentand reliablebasis for social contestation. Butisn't this precisely the area where the theory of communicative ac- tiondeveloped by Habermascould providean importantremedy given theaporias of Foucault's theory of power - in orderto furnishthe theory ofsocial action that is so sorelylacking in Foucault'sown analyticalframe- work?Would it not be fruitfulto understandthe capacity of social actors to resistthe instrumentalization and colonizationof the various spheres of social life primarilyin termsof the theoryof the life-worldthat Habermas,following the lead ofHusserl and Schutz,has used as a basis for understandingcontemporary "new social movements"that have largelyreplaced traditional forms of social struggle? Only by focusing on thelogics of socialization that are specificto advancedindustrial societies can one simultaneouslyuncover the existingcapacities for social contestation.Only by following an approachthat also thematizesthe social consti- tutionofintersubjectivity in these societies can one unearththe very real "po- tentialsfor negation" that are containedin the(universalistic) normative structuresof late capitalism - aboutwhich Foucault, to thedetriment of hisown theory, remains so cynical.In suchterms alone can one develop a social theorythat is non-monological,one in whichthe constitutionof modernselves is understoodnot merelyas the foregoneresult of an autonomouslyacting "biopower" but simultaneouslyas a productof intersubjectiveactivity. To be sure,the extent to whichthe aforementioned normative structures

20. "Power and Sex," Telos32 (1977): 158. 21. As Axel Honneth'sdiscussion of Foucaultin Kritikder Macht (Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp,1984) attemptsto show (albeitwith reference to Foucault's Hobbesian characterizationof societyas a bellumomnium contra omnes), no possibletheory of social cohesionor politicalobligation could emergefrom such a perspective.We would then indeed tumbleback intoa Hobbesian "stateof nature."

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RichardWolin 153 play a constitutiverole in thevarious spheres of contemporarysocial existenceis an empiricalquestion. However, to dismisssuch criteriaa priorias "rationalist"and "dogmatic"is to depriveoneself of a poten- tiallyvaluable basis of social analysisand critique(as does, moreover, thead hominemargument that the claimsof a theoristwith whom one disagreescan be dismissedinsofar as theyrepresent the inflexible demands of a "liberalrationalist superego" [164]). Rajchmanclaims that it is onlyby avoidingthe normativebaggage oftraditional social theory - byundertaking, as itwere, an "other"in- quiry- thatFoucault is able to ferretout unique analyticalperspec- tivesand gains(172ff.) - a pointthat should unquestionablybe con- ceded. But then,it should also be constructiveto expose the various theoreticalcul-de-sacs that Foucault entersinto as a resultof this studiedavoidance of certainintellectual traditions. One can agreewith Rajchmanthat from Foucault's "blindness" stems his "insight."And yetthis conclusion should not implythat the blindnessis something sacrosanctand thusdeserves to remainuncured. Butmutual understanding is nota one-waystreet; and thusit is likely thata Habermasianframework could equally benefit from closer contact witha Foucaultiananalytic of power.The Theory of Communicative Action providesus essentiallywith a discourseon justice.Justice is primarilya proceduralaffair. Consequently, questions of socialpower are broached primarilyin termsof thecapacities of socialactors to articulatetheir interests,wants, and demandsfreely. The specificcontent of thisarticula- tionis in no waypre-judged by Habermas'sframework. To claim,therefore,that the theoryof communicativeaction represents a relapseinto philosophicaldogmatism or a newversion of "foundationalism" is thus essentiallymisleading. The asymmetricaland systematicinterference withthis capacity for intersubjective agreement is deemed thesource of socialdomination in Habermas'sframework. In latecapitalist societies, the repressionof generalizableinterests takes on a particulardynamic. Steeringimperatives that derive from the economic and administrative sub-systemsof society encroach upon theautonomous decision-making capacitiesof socialactors situated in thelife-world. Spheres of socialac- tionthat were heretofore governed informally and communicativelyare nowincorporated within an ever-expandingorganizational-bureaucratic networkof instrumental rationality. Thus, contradictions and disequilib- riums thatwere once endemic to the economic systemunder capitalism have been increasinglyabsorbed, withvarying degrees of success, by the sphere of state administration.In its effortsto neutralize and defuse

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 154 MisunderstandingHabermas crisistendencies, the tentaclesof bureaucraticreason penetratemore and more deeplyinto the heartof civilsociety. It is not hard to see fromthis cursory account that Habermas's critique of instrumentalreason and Foucault'sanalysis of disciplinary technologies(in themilitary, prisons, schools, hospitals, etc.) are poten- tiallycomplementary. Both perspectives(this is of courseless truein Foucault'scase) would seem to havetheir origins in a Weberiancritique of the reifyingeffects of anonymous,bureaucratic power. Habermas tracesthis process from on high,as itwere, beginning at theabstract level of the "purposive-rationalsubsystems" of economyand stateadminis- trationthat are governedby themedia of moneyand power.Foucault, conversely,with his genial,thick descriptions of bio-power,normalization,and historical"techniques of self," analyzes this process from below. And yet,Foucault's investigations of themicro-physics of powerseem to capturea dimensionof dominationin contemporarysocieties that is absentin Habermas'sapproach. Foucault's method allows him to accountfor domination in itsphenomenological, lived immediacy. He is able to portraypower as an "individualizing"phenomenon, as a consti- tutiveaspect of the modernself, in a waythat transcends Habermas's "intersubjective"paradigm, i.e., his conceptualizationof socialaction as orientedprimarily toward "reaching an agreement."Habermas has forcefullycriticized certain "vitalistic" residues of Foucault'sanalytical framework.And whereasit may indeed be advisableto viewan unquali- fiedendorsement of "thebody and itspleasures" with suspicion, at the same time this somatic-existentialdimension of Foucault'sthought seems to have sensitizedhim to the non-ideological,physiological side of powerin a waythat effectively transcends the Habermasian paradigm of communication.Perhaps one of the limitationsof Habermas'sframe- workis thatby attemptingto understandquestions of dominationpre- dominantlyin termsof the problematic of "justice,"he is unableto ap- prehendthe full intricacies and dynamicsof power in advancedindustrial societies.As Foucaulthas shownus, domination,in additionto itsjuri- dical component,has itsphysiological side as well.It has the powerto makepeople "sayyes" to certainhabits, values, and norms,in addition to deprivingthem systematicallyof "rights."It is in this sense that Foucault'sdescriptions of the "productive"capacities of power,as well as hisrelated critique of the so-called "repressive hypothesis," remain in- structive.For it is uncertainwhether this arrayof considerationscan be adequately theorizedin termsof the paradigm of communicationalone.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Rejoinderto RichardWolin

John Rajchman

In his responseto myessay, Richard Wolin remarks that the recent controversyover reason and unreasonin contemporaryphilosophy has provedto be a rathersterile one. I would agree.But in myview it is Habermas's complaint- the chargesof aestheticism,cryptonormativism,nihilism, infantilism, wholesale rejection of reason and modern societylevelled against poststructuralism - whichhas largelybeen responsiblefor this sterility. Wolin reiteratesHabermas's complaintin some of his earlieressays, where he writesof a "diabolical" pact con- nectingFoucault to NiklasLuhmann, of Foucault'sdefective Miindigkeit or immaturity,and of his dangerousand empty"aesthetic decision- ism." Wolin also adopts an even more dismissiveattitude towards Derridain theseessays. After accusing me of psychologizingHaber- mas,Wolin simplyrepeats his complaint,which seems to me to compound thevery sterility to whichhe objects.Wolin is willingto allow only "specificlimitations" to Habermas's thoughtin discussion:he countenances no real questioning of it.'

1. The "specificlimitation" Wolin has in mindis thelimitation of Habermas' strict focuson "formaljustice." This focuswould allow no place forthe "physiologicaldi- mensionof power" studiedby Foucault.But sinceWolin thinks justice just is "formal justice,"he seems to leave no "rational"way of dealing with the question of thebody raised by Foucault; he thus seems to court the verydangers of aestheticismor cryptonormativism,to which he also objects.And yet,Foucault's study of discipline was a studyof theemergence of a "normalizing"view of criminalitywithin penal justice.As such itforms part of a largerdebate about legaltheory, to whichboth Foucault and Derridahave contributed.Foucault was veryinterested in a criticalhistory of the law. His assumptionwas thatit is jurisprudence that makes the law, and notthe law jurisprudence.One mighttherefore study the history of jurisprudential thought, and of stylesof legal reasoning. This historywould not seek to dissolveall "formal"reasoning

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This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 156 Rejoinderto Wolin

Givenwhat he has written,one cannot help thinkingthat Wolin's disowningof thewhole issue of reasonand unreasonis disingenuous. Butthere is also a simpleconceptual consideration. The "paradigmof communicativeaction" is a theoryof rationalityand proposesan ex- haustiveclassification of its types.(A minor "aporia" in Wolin's response is thatthis theory rejects, as insufficientlytranscendental, the veryidea of paradigms.)What stands outside this "paradigm," what it cannotclassify, what "limits" it, is thereforebound to seem to it to be "irrational."This is certainlythe case forFoucault and Derridawhose workdoes not fitinto Habermas's classification of reasonor of "communication."In theirwork he sees only "cryptonormativism"and "aestheticdecisionism." These are notrational positions; indeed, they are self-refuting.Outside "communication," there is thus"irrationality."We are entitledto ask whatassumptions about communicationor reasonlead Habermasto thisperception of irrationality.Among them I thinkare these.Habermas assumesthat all critiqueis eithernorma- tive or cryptonormative,justifying or hiding norms of judgment. Nothingcan be criticallyquestioned without a procedureof judgment. He also assumesthat there is nothingphilosophically significant about the contexts,forms, or framesthrough which arguments are made. "Aesthetics"is somethingdistinct from criticalargument - it is unsupportedpreference - and thereis thus no "aesthetics"in and throughcritical or philosophicalargument, just as thereis no argu- mentin and through"aesthetics." I thinkthese assumptions are not into a relativisticsea of "substance." It would be about "problematizations";one would studythe law whereits applications cause conceptualproblems. One would examine legal thinkingin termsof the kindsof problemsit was designedto solve,and thetransformations to which such techniqueswere submitted as theyconfronted new sortsof experience.Thus veryroughly one mightsay: a certain"problematization" of royalor aristocraticsovereignty would lead to a constitutionalformulation of the Rightsof Man, and thoserights would be in turnconfronted with new sortsof problems arisingfrom labor disputesand therise of thewelfare- warfare state. The result- ingjurisprudence would thenbe confrontedwith new criticalexperiences and ques- tionsabout women, minorities,the environment,war - in shortabout "power." (One example of thissort of historyis to be foundin FrancoisEwald's book, L'Etat Providence,which defends a kindof critical legal nominalism.) It is clearthat this kind of criticallegal history would yield results different from one based on thedichotomy be- tweenadministrative reason and "thelife-world" that is advancedin Habermas'stheo- ryof communicativeaction. It is myview that it would be a mistaketo representthese differencesin termsof a distinctionbetween those problems we can solveby "formal justice" and those we cannot. For it is in thatdirection that would lie an uncritical antilegalirrationalism.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JohnRajchman 157 onlyfalse but are also limitingor restrictiveones forcritical thought. To questionsomething in a criticalsense is neitherto rejectit outright norto possessin advancethe procedure that will settle it. It is thusnot "irrational"or logicallyimpossible for there to exista criticalquestion- ingin advanceof norms or rulesof decision, or in whichthose rules or normsare themselvesopen to question. In such cases how to judge criticallyforms part of the criticalquestion of judgment. I thinkthese cases are centralones forphilosophical reflection and argumentation. In my essay I tryto show how Derrida's "deconstructions"and Foucault's"genealogies" may be regardedas instancesof sucha critical questioning,which is willingto askwho we are historicallyand "aestheti- cally"when we judge. Theirquestioning of Kantianand post-Kantian thoughtis notan attemptto rejectit outright but involves a differentsort of criticalargument than one whichwould lay down the "criteriaof rationality"to judge modem societies.Thus theyopen newlines of in- vestigationand stylesof analysisand discovernew sortsof connections withthe earlierFrankfurt School, which Habermas's account of ration- alityis designedto surpass.Habermas wants none of this.He saysthe two have contributedabsolutely nothing to the tradition.He cannotsee theirkinds of critical argument, or can onlysee themas "irrationalism." Forhe does noteven consider what is excludedby placing the "limits" on reasonand communicationthat he does - what,if not "irrationality"? For Wolin,it is not possiblethat Habermas might have a "dogmatic" viewof reason, since he has a "pluralistic"one. Butis theonly "dogma" of reasonits unity?Can therebe no "dogmaticpluralism"? In his response,Wolin explains that in orderto be a "pluralist"one has to be a "formalist"- thinkwhat you willas longas you followmy "universal" proceduresof argument or reasoning.What does thismean in practice? Whileofficially an empirical"fallibalist," Habermas is also a "tran- scendentaltrinitarian." Reason dividesinto three and onlythree kinds, each matchingwith a "quasi-transcendental"Interest of the Human Species.The "plurality"of reason thus reduces to a fixedclassification. Thatis the "plurality"that is to be "respected"or "tolerated."That is whyto respect"plurality" is to setout itsformal limits in a "universal pragmatics." Habermastries to roothis tripartite"quasi-transcendental" division of Reason in the historical"value-spheres" that would distinguish modern societiesfrom ancient or primitiveones. He thus arrivesat something more than an empirically fallible historical thesis. At the

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 158 Rejoinderto Wolin heartof Habermas'sown discourseabout modernitythere is a sortof "historico-transcendentaldoublet." To questionhis divisionof reason is to wishto escape frommodern society; and to questionhis division of the value-spheresof modernsociety is to give up reasonitself. Butfor Foucault "reason" was notrelated to "society"or "history"in thismanner. Foucault had no use forthe doctrine of the unity of reason, northerefore for that of society. He was thusa "pluralist,"but of a different sort.He thoughtthat the aims or interestsof knowledgewere not fixedby quasi-transcendentalcategories and correspondinghistorical "value-spheres,"but ratherthrough a contingenthistory specific to the variouskinds of knowledge.A discourseis "rational"or "objective" whenit puts forth an objectabout which there can be a "reasoning,"or a wayof determining true and falsestatements. As theforms of reasoning are various,the historyof "rationality"is a pluralone, and thereis no such thingas Objectivityor Rationalityin general.This pluralhistory is in partsocial and political.But, of course, that does notmean that validi- tyis decidedonly by considerationsof bruteforce (as Habermasoften assumes).On thecontrary, "knowledge is power"for Foucault precisely because,in a specificmanner, it is objectiveand relativelyautonomous. "Plurality"for Foucault was thusnot a transcendentaldivision that we mustrespect at thecost of irrationality.It was a positiveprinciple of di- versityand proliferation.We can neversay in advancewhat new forms of reasoning,or whatnew "division"in reason,we may yethave. Thus Foucaultadmired in Max Weber his attemptto distinguishvarious "types"of rationalityin modem society,but he said theywere not the onlyones. In responseto GerardRaulet, he declared:"In factI do not speakof bifurcation of reason [as Habermasimagines]. Rather I speakof multiplebifurcations. I speak of an endlessprolific division. I am not speakingof the momentwhen reason became bureaucratic."2Here thereis a persistentnexus of misunderstanding,dutifully repeated by Wolin.Habermas assimilates everything Foucault says about thework- ingsof specificforms of knowledgeand powerto InstrumentalReason, and thencomplains that he failsto distinguishitfrom Practical Reason. He does notsee thatFoucault does notstart with this division of reason, thathe neednot, thathe is a pluralistof anotherkind. One limitof Habermas'stheory of communicationis the "dogmatism"that asserts

2. "How Much Does It Cost For Reason to Tell the Truth?" in FoucaultLive (Semiotext(e),1989) 243.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JohnRajchman 159 thatthere is onlya singlekind of plurality in reason,one groundedin a "pragmatics"of theway we mustspeak or argue. Wolinthinks that Habermas's complaint springs from a puredesire to communicate,from the place in his tolerantheart where pure reason speaks.I am inclinedto a somewhatmore historical view. In relationto the"limits" of Habermas'thought, I speakof a fear,which - to thede- greethat it is misplaced,rigidifying and uncontrollable- mightwell be termeda "phobia." I offerthe conjecture that this fear is connectedto the historicalexperience of NationalSocialism. In his responseWolin misunderstandsor misrepresentsthis conjecture in twoways. First I do notimpugn or disqualifyHabermas's arguments or historicalinterpreta- tionsby reference to thisfear; on thecontrary, itis theproblems with his readingsand withthe assumptions of his arguments that leads me to ask whatmotivates them. Secondly, my conjecture is nota psychopathologi- cal but a historicalone: in makingthe conjectureI relyon nothing Habermashas notsaid ofhimself. The onlything I sayabout hisyouth - thatit was a Hider youth - I tryto put togetherwith such otherwell- knownfacts as hisdisillusionment with Heidegger, and hisworries about the "fascismof theleft" of the 60s protestmovements. My essay is not about Habermas'spsychopathology, and I do not thinkeven a Ph.D. in literaturewould infer that it is. I suspectthat what distressesWolin is thecontext by reference to whichI historicizehim. It is a contextthat is hard to ignore.Wolin has no qualms about using biographicalmaterial in discussionof anotherGerman philosopher: Heidegger,die Nazis, undkein Ende. One wants to ask Wolin what it would mean fora criticalphilosopher of Habermas'sgeneration, indeed for any "philosopherof modernity"today, not to be concernedwith this complexhistorical experience. My claim is simplythat there is more thanone way.The postwarattitude to Heideggerin Germanyis afterall ratherdifferent from that in Franceor in America.Thus, whenWolin underscores,in referenceto LukAcs,"in a specificallyGerman historical context,"he seemsto me notto eliminate,but to open,a questionabout just what the (predominantlyGerman-language) "philosophical discourseof modernity"has to do withthis "context." That, and not his childhoodcomplex, is the questionI wantedto raiseabout Habermas and about his complaint. In particularI raise thisquestion in relationto the considerations whichDerrida, and those sympatheticto his philosophy,have raised concerningnationalism, and more preciselywhat Lacoue-Labarthe has

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 160 Rejoinderto Wolin called "aestheticnationalism" in thephilosophical discourse of modernity,of which Habermas is proposinga reconstruction.In hisresponse, Wolinsimply dismisses my entire discussion of Derrida, and ofthe "aes- theticdiscourse of modernity,"in a footnotein whichhe simplyasserts thathe, Wolin,is notconvinced by it - somethingthat is notvery sur- prising.It is a shamethat Wolin is unwillingto discussthis, since in these pagesI tryto exposea difficultyin Habermas's general story of modernityand showone wayin whichit mightbe "deconstructed." Habermas'scomplaint has servedmostly to getin theway of discussion. In particularit has inhibiteda more genuineor fruitfuldebate about his ownwork. I do notthink that Habermas's work reduces to his complaint.Here I would takeissue withWolin's own objectionin an earlieressay that Habermas "purports to offermankind the hyper-rationalistutopia of total communicative transparency. It mustbe admit- ted,however, that this remains a thoroughlydisenchanted, intellectua- listutopia. The problemis thatthis ideal recognizeshuman beings only in theircapacity as 'rational animals' . . (it is) at points indistinguisha- ble fromthe rationalizing, homogenizing tendencies of the modem age ..,"3 Wolin's point is that,at least forothers less capable of Miindigkeit, therewill alwaysremain a little"enchantment" connected with their bodies and theirsenses. This resemblesWolin's remark at the end of his responseto me, wherehe saysthat Habermas cannot understand thatthe body is irrationalin thestrong sense that through it is induced an acceptanceof domination, that is morethan just "distortedcommu- nication."For me thisis an "irrationalist"position, for it uncritically ac- ceptsthe dichotomy between the bodily and therational, and takesour being as rational animals as a single thing,connected with the "homogenizingtendencies of the modem age." To the degree that Habermasis advancingsuch a "'hyper-rationalistutopia of totalcom- municativetransparency," it seems to me thathe is offeringmankind a ratherpoor idea ofthe various capacities of its reason, and theirrelations with"aesthetics," or "power" or thebody. On my reading,there is anothersort of difficulty.Habermas's attemptto givepluralism a transcendentalface (and transcendentalphi- losophya pluralisticone) betraysmixed motivations. On theone hand, he wantsto preservefrom the philosophical discourse of modernity the

3. RichardWolin, "Critical Theory and the Dialecticof Rationalism,"New German Critique41 (Spring-Summer,1987): 51-2.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JohnRajchman 161 task of providinga criterionto distinguishrational from irrational societiesor socialarrangements. On theother hand, he wantsto connect thiscriterion to a pluralismthat would allow for different,and even changing,views about modem societies,social relations, and thesorts of rationalitythat govern them. When he findsa criticismof social arrange- ments,or of discourse,or of the post-Kantiantradition, other than the onlyone he finds"rational," he feelsjustified in adoptinga ratherintol- erantview, castigating it as irrational.Thus he can findin Derridaand Foucaultonly a versionof the earlier and "one-sided"critique of Instru- mentalReason, with its related dialectic of the Enlightenment. I do not recognizethis as a centraltheme in the work of either Foucaultor Derrida.Foucault and Derridawere not trying to opt out of a "modernity"that would be definedby a classificationof Reason.They weretrying, in differentways, to questionand to complicateour senseof what "modernity"(and "reason") are. Thus, for example, Foucault wantedto showthat a historyof the treatment of the mad formsan integ- ralpart of the specific sort of "rationality" that determines what we think of as a normalwell-adjusted individual - and thuswith one of our no- tionsof what is "reasonable."Similarly he wantedto showthat a certain kindof architecturalregime belongs to the "rationality"that allows us speakof criminality.In questioningthese specific contingent kinds and conceptionsof reason,he triedto createpublic spaces of discussionin whichprisoners and mad people mightthemselves have a say- spaces thatwould be "democratic"in thesense that the intellectual would not be theirmaster, that he wouldnot dominate discussion with his "criteri- on ofrationality." For his part,Derrida has soughtto questionthe basic assumptionsof the kindof historicalscheme that runs throughout the "philosophicaldiscourse of modernity,"down to Heidegger'sconcep- tionof "epochal regimes of Being." His pointis to open up anotherkind of"historicity" in criticaljudgment, which would provide for events that questionus and open us againto invention,and whichone mayplausi- bly connectwith Kant and witha certaindemocratic Idea. In both in- stancesI thinkthat what is challengingand interestingis nottheir supposed meta-viewsabout reasonand unreasonin society.It is ratherthe questionof what relationour philosophicaland criticalthought may havetoday with the complex history in whichit finds itself. Here itseems to me that there are grounds for a more useful discussionwith Habermas. Habermas's complaint stands in the way.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RememberingHistory: The Filmmaker Konrad Wolf1

Marc Silberman

1944. A young Red Armysoldier - Germanby birthbut whose parentshad emigratedwith their young children to the SovietUnion forpolitical reasons - returnsto Germany.He comes home withthe triumphantSoviet Army, as a conquerorin his defeatedhomeland. Now beginsthe processof self-discoveryand self-questioning:What does "home" mean in thisunknown, native country? This is the backgroundto the filmIch war neunzehn, Konrad Wolf s contributionto the fiftiethanniversary of the October Revolutionin 1968.The struggleto findoneself, the difficult path toward self-awareness,recalls patterns from the grandtradition of theBildungsroman in generaland frompopular workingclass literatureof theWeimar Re- publicin particular.Wolf's films describe this process, but they are less concernedwith the end pointof that difficult path than with the struggle itself.For thiswas Wolf'sown formativeexperience: "Each person musttake the firststeps on the oftencontradictory path in searchof home,in discoveringhis place in thestruggle for the only possible fu- tureof his people. Afteremigration and return,that has been and re- mainsthe crucial experience in mydevelopment" (Wolf 1984, p. 900). In Wolf'scase, consciousnessof one's own place in historyis not sim- plya personalproblem; it also impliesthe larger question of German

1. I am gratefulto the AmericanPhilosophical Society for its generousfinancial supportand to theStaatliches Filmarchiv der DDR forits friendly assistance in screening severalfilms. With the financial support of theAlexander von Humboldt-Stiftung a condensed, earlierversion of this articlewas presentedat the Congressof the InternationaleVereinigung ffir germanische Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaftin G6ttingen(August 1985). This shortversion was publishedin Germanin theCongress Proceedings(Silberman 1986).

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This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 164 RememberingHistory nationalidentity, a dilemmawhich has not diminishedsince the end of thewar. Wolf's films present a unique windowon thepostwar Ger- man experience,and it is regrettablethat up to now theyhave noten- joyed a broaderpublic receptionin the United States.2In addition, Wolfs statusas one of,perhaps even the most talented film director to come fromthe GDR meritsparticular attention in consideringthe spe- cificconditions and strategiesof filmmakingin a socialistcountry. Fi- nally,Wolf's continuous and criticalexamination of Germanhistory andthe formal means by which he hasengaged in thishighly personal examinationrepresent a productive counter-model to thephenome- non ofthe historical film in theFederal Republic during the last ten years(e.g., Syberberg, Kluge, Sanders-Brahms, Reitz, etc.). Whothen is KonradWolf? Born in 1925,son ofthe physician and well-knownauthor Friedrich Wolf, he grewup until1933 in Wiirttem- berg.With his entiregeneration, he livedthrough the rupture in Ger- man historyof the Third Reich,not as acquiescentbystander but as outsider.His family,Jewish and communist,ended up in the Soviet Unionin 1934and becamepart of the German-speaking anti-fascist communityin Moscow.As a naturalizedSoviet citizen, Konrad Wolf wasdrafted into the Red Army in 1942and placedin thepropaganda corps,with his last active duty as lieutenantin the Battle of Berlin. This experienceof the German catastrophe as a victoryover the Germans - notwithout a feeling of satisfaction on Wolf'spart - separateshim frommany of his Germancontemporaries and shapedhis senseof Germanhistory (Sylvester 1980). For two years after the capitulation Wolfcontinued to workas a Red Armyofficer in variouscapacities withinthe SovietMilitary Administration in occupied Germany, amongother positions as oneof the founders of a majordaily newspaper(Berliner Zeitung) and as a culturalattache for theatre and film in the stateof Sachsen-Anhalt (Halle). In thelatter position, he wasresponsi- ble forselecting those UFA filmproductions of theprevious twelve yearswhich would be shownin thecinemas. In 1947Wolf assumed a positionin theBerlin "House forSoviet Culture" and begana short- livedjournalistic career, writing for Berlin newspapers.

2. Konrad Wolfvisited the UnitedStates only once, in April 1975 (Washington, DC, New York,Los Angeles,and Fairbanks,Alaska). His commentsare recordedin an interview(Wolf 1975). The followingfilms are distributedcurrently in the United States:Stars and Lissy(National Center for Jewish Film at BrandeisUniversity), I Was 19 and Solo Sunny(GDR Embassy).

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MarcSilberman 165

The decisionto pursuefilm studies appears to havebeen theresult of coincidencerather than conviction.In the SovietUnion Wolfhad alreadybeen involvedwith practical filming as a childactor in Gustavvon Wangenheim'santi-fascist film Kidmpfer (1936). Moreover,his father's notoriousdifficulties with film adaptations of severalof his playswere knownto him (Kasjanowa1974, p. 143). Yetwhen he appliedfor film studiesduring a vacationin Moscowin 1949,it was as mucha conveni- entway to return"home" as thestart of professional career training. In fact,the State All-Union Institute for Cinematography accepted him in GrigoriAlexandrov's directorial class. Alexandrov, who made hisrepu- tationproducing eccentric musical comedies and satires(Jazz Comedy, 1934; Circus,1936; VolgaVolga, 1938), became for Wolf a directinterme- diaryto SergeiEisenstein's legacy, as he had been a close collaborator in Eisenstein'sProletkult collective. In addition,Wolf studied with SergeiGerassimov, who influencedthe whole middle generation of So- vietdirectors (i.e. SergeiBondarchuk) and whose laconic stylewould also increasinglyinfluence Wolfs films.Finally, Mikhail Romm also taughtat theFilm Academy, and itwas hislate film Nine Days in One Year (1961) thatwould have an extraordinaryimpact on Wolf'sdevelopment.During his studies in Moscow,Wolf remained in contactwith the Statefilm studios in theGDR (DEFA), assistingJorisIvens with his doc- umentaryfilm on theThird International Youth and StudentFestival in Berlin(Freundschaft siegt, 1951) and KurtMaetzig with his film portrait of the martyredCommunist leader, Ernst Thiilmann - Sohnseiner Klasse (1954). He concludedhis studieswith the feature-length film Einmal ist keinmal(1955), the firstin a seriesof thirteenfilms (and two television features)he producedat the DEFA studios. Whenhe died suddenlyand unexpectedlyin 1982,Wolf was one of the best knownfilmmakers in the GDR, honoredwith several of the highestState awards and medals and recognizedas one of the few GDR directorsto enjoyan internationalreputation in the East as well as theWest. Some considerhim to be themost important German di- rectorof his generation.Others regard his workas not uninteresting but acknowledgeprimarily his influencewithin the GDR, citinghis manyhigh level offices in variouscultural and politicalorganizations: Chair of the Artists'Union; Presidentof the prestigiousAcademy of Arts(1965-82); and memberof the CentralCommittee of the ruling SocialistUnity Party (1981-82). Such prestigeexplains why some who consider themselves to be in the opposition treated Wolf with

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 166 RememberingHistory

skepticism,as a representativeof statepower (Brasch 1982, p. 13). Oth- ers harboredfeelings of envy because hislong-standing team of collab- oratorsseemed to enjoyspecial privileges, such as reducedpressure to produceon deadline.3In anyevent, Wolf's films have always been surroundedby controversy,and as is oftenthe case in such situations,he was frequentlypraised and criticizedfor the very same reasons.4 Itwould be a mistaketo characterizeKonrad Wolf as a filmauteur, that is,he cannotbe identifiedexclusively with a singleor idiosyncraticvisual style,or evenwith an exclusivethematic interest. If thereis a Wolf"signature,"it is theproduct of a collective,of a groupconsisting first and foremostof cameramanWerner Bergmann (who filmed all but thelast twofeatures) as wellas theset designer Alfred Hirschmeier, the compos- er Hans-DieterHosalla and thescriptwriters Karl Georg Egel and Paul Wiens(for the early films) and laterAngel Wagenstein or Wolfgang Kohl- haase (cf.the filmography at theend of thisarticle). It was the achievementof this group to reorganizeagain and againthe visual experience of the cinema in orderto undermineconventions and habitsof seeing. Wolfdid not regardhis workas an isolatedundertaking but ratheras partof the more general activity of raising the aesthetic standards and ex- pectationsof the public. Together with his film team he was alwaysseek- ingnew ways to presenteveryday life by experimenting with new technical processesand modifyingfilmic structure. In introducingthe works of KonradWolf, I wantto examinethe variety and potentialof such cine- maticinnovations as a wayof evaluatinghis successand reception. ThematicallyWolf's oeuvre does manifesta remarkablecontinuity in its preoccupationwith the German past, with the quest for a positionfrom which one mightexplain the vicissitudes of recentGer- man history.There is in his filmsa practical,if not even didactic,attemptto pursuethe traces of the past in thepresent and, conversely,to show how the presentis partof the past. From thisperspective one may dividehis filmworkinto four categories:

3. Thiswas thecase especiallyduring the preparations for Wolf's Goya film project, lastingseveral years. It became one of themost expensive films ever produced by the DEFA studios(cf. R. Herlinghaus1971). 4. There is as yetno adequate biographyof Konrad Wolf.Konrad Wolf 1985a, a largepicture book, containsbesides numerousphotographs a hagiographicessay by KlausWischnewski, a chronology and a completefilmography. Konrad Wolf 1985b containsa selectionof Wolf'swritings, speeches and interviewson cultureand cultural politicsin theGDR, especiallyin hiscapacity as Presidentof the Academy of Arts. Oth- er usefulstudies from the GDR includeTok 1972 and Richter1983.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MarcSilberman 167

1) filmsabout the thirtiesand the riseof fascism:Lissy (1956), Leute mitFliigeln (1960), ProfessorMamlock (1961), Wolf'stwo installmentsof the six-parttelevision series Busch singt (1981/82); 2) filmsabout the war and the immediatepostwar years: Genesung (1956), Sterne(1959), Ichwar neunzehn (1968), Mama, ich lebe (1977); 3) filmsabout contemporaryGDR society:Einmal ist keinmal (1955), Sonnensucher(1958), Der geteilteHimmel (1964), Der nackteMann auf dem Sportplatz(1974), SoloSunny (1980); 4) the televisionfilm Der kleinePrinz (1966) and the historicalepic Goya(197 1).5 That postwarGerman society has been so decisivelyformed by the past is forWolf the consequence of a peculiarset of conditions:"Be- cause our people did not liberatethemselves on theirown initiative, theliberation process after 1945 had to be realizedmainly on theintel- lectuallevel, a processwhich was especiallyintensive during the first postwardecade but which,in myview, must continue still today and on into the future"(Wolf 1965, p. 380). This conviction,referring to the "today" of 1965, typifiesall of Wolf'swork. Thus his films,even those concernedwith contemporary GDR reality,are addressedto a public beyond nationalGerman borders.Moreover, his lifelongin- quiryinto Germany's fascist past and itspostwar development offers a completelydifferent model than the popular "Year Zero" equation whichunderlies the discussionin West Germany.6 For thepurposes of this overview I willintroduce the films in chron- ological order by year of productionin order to make visibletheir innovativeformal qualities and thematicdiversity. A clear changeoc- curredin Wolf'soeuvre, a shiftfrom the pathos and pretentiousnessof

5. Derkleine Prinz, an adaptationof St. Exupery'sfairy tale for adults, was notavail- able to me and appears to have had littleimpact. Although produced in 1966, itwas not broadcaston GDR televisionuntil 1972. A briefdescription of the plot can be foundin Dalichow 1983, p. 27. 6. The receptionof Wolf'sfilms in WestGermany deserves a studyof itsown. In general,there are isolatedGDR productionsthat enjoy runs with moderate success in WestGerman cinemas or on television,but by and largethe GDR filmscene is com- pletelyunknown and a negligiblepresence among thedistributors (unlike GDR literature).As faras Wolf'sfilms are concerned,Lissy has been used forhistory classes to illustratethe relationship of thepetty bourgeoisie to NationalSocialism, and his lastfea- turefilm, Solo Sunny, even achievedthe rankof a box officesuccess afterwinning a prizeat the(West) Berlinale Film Festival (1980). Scholarlywork on Wolfhas also been rare;other than an essayby Gregor1977, and sectionsin a doctoraldissertation by Blunk 1984, therehas been nothingof consequence.

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 168 RememberingHistory theearly films to thesuppleness and discretionof the later ones. Sever- al exampleswill demonstrate, I hope, thatWolf's aesthetic maturation shows a constant - if uneven - patternof progression. The earliest films (fromEinmal istkeinmal to ProfessorMamlock) share twoqualities. First, usually together with Karl GeorgEgel, Paul Wiens receivescredit for the scripts (except Lissy and Sterne),which explains to some extentthe melodramaticelement and formulaicdramaturgy. For example,Einmal ist keinmal, a musical comedy in whicha WestGer- man composervisits a smallvillage in the GDR and promptlyfalls in love (a kindof socialist Heimatfilm), turns into a mediocrefarce because of the weak dialogue and poor acting.Second, Wolf and his cameraman Bergmannsearch for and findeffective cinematic means to com- pensatefor the theatrics.Experiments with unusual lenses,with filming in availablelight and a handheldcamera in Genesung,shots with two synchronizedcameras or withan improvisedzoom lens in Lissy are onlya fewof the "discoveries"which add spontaneityand novelty to theearly films. At the same timethey point to a furtherproblem: the abstractnessand arbitrarinessof theseforms vis- A-vis the content. Lissy,based upon F. C. Weiskopfsnovel written in thethirties, Lissy oderdie Versuchung,was Wolf'sfirst popular success.The narrativetells of a woman caughtbetween the demands of her husband who, de- moralizedby unemployment,becomes more and moreinvolved with the Nazis, and of her own traditionalworking class values. Together withAlex Wedding,Weiskopf's widow, Wolf wrote a scriptadaptation thatremains close to the novel. More importantthan the psychologi- callyconvincing portrait of fascism'sappeal to the pettybourgeoisie was the carefultreatment of milieu and atmosphere.Both Walter Ruttmann's filmBerlin. Die Symphonieder GrofJstadt(1927) as well as so- called Germanproletarian films of the earlythirties were important formalmodels. Althoughthis historicalconnection was not entirely submergedamong DEFA directors(as was the case in the West Ger- man film industryof the fifties),Wolf's mediation is particularly markedby his trainingin theSoviet Union. In thisrespect, his formal workshows a recuperationof the aesthetictechniques, especially the montageof Eisenstein,that informed the politicalavant-garde filmmakingin Germanybefore 1933. Thisis especiallytrue in Lissy, where the variety of montage is striking. By means of the femalevoice-over and dialogue,fades and dissolves, music and contrastivecuts using image and sound, Wolf constructs

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MarcSilberman 169 imaginativetransitions and montagesequences. The frustratingjob of Lissy'shusband as an unsuccessfuldoor-to-door salesman, for example, is portrayedin a masterfullyedited sequence. The accelerating rhythmof images and dissolves,accompanied by fasterand louder piano chordsand doorbells,recalls the well-known job searchmotif of the bikeriders in the Dudow/Brechtfilm Kuhle Wampe (1932). Another scene "quotes" the earlierfilm: Lissy is standingat the kitchentable peelingpotatoes, lost in her thoughtsabout the workingclass family she had just witnessedbeing evicted (wonderfully shot as a newsdocu- mentary),while her husband sitsat the table readingaloud fromthe NationalSocialist newspaper how theParty will "clean up" theecono- my.As in thesimilar Mata Hari sequence in KuhleWampe, the collision of image and sound, shot and dialogue,lays bare the realityof petty bourgeoisillusions by juxtaposing contradictory elements. Lissyachieves its straightforward documentary quality by composing imagesin just such an expressiveway, a qualitythat hints at Wolf'sfa- miliaritywith the Italian Neo-Realismof a directorlike Vittoriode Sica. This is all the more surprisingin the contextof whatotherwise emergedfrom the DEFA studiosdurifig the mid-fifties,films characterizedby the socialistromanticism of the proletarianpositive hero and the veritablelevelling of historicalcontradictions. Wolf, on the otherhand, avoids in Lissya tendencyto instrumentalizeimages as il- lustrationand hence continuesthe creativetradition of the bestfilms produced in the earlyyears of the DEFA studiosby such directorsas KurtMaetzig, Slatan Dudow, WolfgangStaudte, and ErichEngel. WhereasWeiskopf's Lissy novel ends on an optimisticnote with the protagonistjoining the ranks of the anti-fascistresistance, Wolf chooses a somewhatless confidentyet stillheroic resolution.Lissy turnsaway fromthe Nazi movementwhich is responsiblefor her brother'smurder and to whichher husband and hisfriends belong. In thelast shotwe followher as she leaves the cemetarychapel afterher brothersfuneral - "alone but notabandoned," the female voice-over assures- and thoughtfullywalks down a tree-linedpath as thecamera tiltsskywards. Professor Mamlock is likewiseforced to acceptthe inevitable,but herehis insightinto the historical consequences of National Socialismleads to his tragicdownfall. The filmis an adaptationof FriedrichWolf's play of the same name,written before Konrad's father had emigratedfrom Germany.Classically constructed, filled with Schillerian pathos in long, declamatory monologues, the play is still

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 170 RememberingHistory impressivetoday in its logic and consistency.It had alreadybeen filmedin 1938 in the Soviet Union by German emigrantHerbert Rappaportand directorAdolf Minkin. The earlyversion is strikingfor itsexcellent acting and theunusually static camera. In contrastto both the play and the lateradaptation, this film focuses on the son's com- munistagitation and on Nazi brutality.In a departurefrom the play - and probablyowing to ideologicalconditions of the day - Mamlock injures himselfrather than committingsuicide, while a completely new plot emergesaround the son's resistanceactivities in the underground. KonradWolf concentrates in his versionon Mamlock'satti- tudes and behaviorrather than on the son's convictions.Chief sur- geon, politicalliberal, and assimilatedJew, Mamlock believes in the justice of the constitutionalstate. Indeed, he even supportsin some pointsthe demandsof the NationalSocialists; but above all he insists thatpolitics have no place in his professionallife as a doctor.At the end of the film,after he has been firedfrom his positionon political grounds,after his daughterhas been chased fromthe school,after he himselfis marchedthrough the streets, a signaround his neck identifying him as a Jew,Mamlock has lost all sense of value in his life.He shootshimself in his surgeryward. AlthoughWolf transfersthe stage plot fairlydirectly to the film script,he allowshimself much freedomin thetransposition from one medium to the other.The camera revealssuch visual opulence that thereis a riskof overwhelmingthe story(Bergmann 1974, p. 28). For example,the filmopens witha long New Year's eve sequence at the Mamlockhome contrapunctuallyintercut with the streetcelebrations and with a confrontationbetween Mamlock's son, his communist friendsand severalNazi hooligans.All ofthe main characters and their social pretensionsare introducedrapidly and precisely.Even morere- markable,however, is theballet-like mobility of the camera which never seemsto cease itsmovements: tracking shots in all directions,tilts at extremeangles, parallel tracking shots with moving figues, quick cuts fromclose-ups to long shots,all accompaniedby theuplifting chords of Beethoven'sNinth Symphony. The sequence's climaxis reachedin a seriesof shots,each lastingonly a fewseconds, which are dominated by circularmovements and patterns:a round of champagneglasses held high in a toastfrom a bird's-eyeview, the sudden reflectionof lightfrom a swiftlyopened switchblade,exploding fireworks from a low angle, point of view shots of dancing couples, a record turningon

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MarcSilberman 171 a turntablefrom a highangle, etc. The freneticfluctuation of images intensifiesthe motifof circlingand endows it withmetaphoric value. The film'sspectacular introductory sequence indicatesthe tense at- mosphereat theonset of thenew year1933; at thesame timeit antici- pates in the formalfigure of the circlethe consequenceof Mamlock's illusions- the turningin on oneself. Anothersequence, not as complicatedbut equally effective, shows the flightof Mamlock's daughter from her school. The spectatorfollows the fugitive'sdizzying movement through the point of view shotswith a handheldcamera as she runsdown the staircase, through the schoolyard and finallyinto the streets. Here we finda typicalstrategy employed by Wolfto drawhis spectatorinto a reflectiverelationship with the film: the repetitionof shots,objects, details, dialogue, etc. The iterationor dupli- cationof the same elementin a new contextpermeates the film on all levels.When Mamlock'sson arguesagainst the Communists'guilt for the Reichstagfire, his fatherreplies: "I can feelit to the tipsof myfin- gers."His wordscome backto haunthim somewhat later when his col- leagueDr. Ruoffimplicatesthe Jews in thefire. He is shockedto hearhis verywords in themouth of this woman who turnsagainst him. Similarly, thedramaturgy iterates Mamlock's daily arrival at thesurgical ward, a rit- ual entryperformed three times during the film and each timeironically charged- at Mamlock'sexpense - becauseof the shifting power relations.The repeateddeep focuson a picturehanging in Mamlock'soffice, a representationof themedieval grim reaper, likewise becomes a threat- ening,foreboding omen. The repetitionof a passagefrom Beethoven's NinthSymphony renders it a kindof musicalvehicle for hope and a re- minderof humanisticvalues. Finally,Mamlock's conversation toward the end of thefilm with his youngcolleague Dr. Ruoff- on the one hand,a Nazi sympathizer,on theother, in love withMamlock's son - framesher in a symbolicallydoubled mirrorimage. Suchformal structures of iteration not only expose the illusions of the protagonistthrough distancing, irony and doublingbut also preparethe spectatorfor the suicide of this man - theultimate circular logic - who dies becauseof his blindness.As in his earlierfilm Lissy, Wolf ends here on a noteof heroic resistance. Mamlock passes on to Dr. Ruoffhis tragi- callyacquired insight: "You musttake the other,the new road [ofre- sistance]... and greetmy son on thisroad." The filmends shortly there- afterwith the warning tide: "There is no greatercrime than not wanting to fightwhen you must."

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 172 RememberingHistory

Wolf's otherfilms in thisfirst period are formallyless ambitious and, in myopinion, also less imaginativein findingvisual solutions for the plots' ratherobvious structuraldevices. Genesungseems to have morein commonwith the UFA entertainmentfilms produced during theThird Reich than with the film language of sociallycritical films of theearly thirties. The exaggeratedpathos of the female antagonist's renunciation-in a storyof postwar reconciliation and rebuildingas well as symbolicallyladen, clichedmotifs (e.g., the themesong of sailing intothe harbor of freedom,the endlessshots of sea waves)- addres- ses existingaudience expectations without questioning the constructed imageof reality from which they derive. A carefullyedited, short montageof war photographs reinforced by beatingdrums is theonly really strikingsequence, an effectiveportrayal, or better,a summaryof war and itssenselessness. For thefirst time Wolf demonstrates here his idi- osyncratictalent for dynamic image compositions which will continue to evolve. Sonnensucheris the director'sfirst attempt to make a realisticfilm about contemporaryGDR society(in contrastto the earlierEinmal ist keinmal).The filmshows a panorama of GDR workingclass lifefilled withcontradictions in one ofthe most important large industrial proj- ectsof the reconstructionyears, the uraniummines in Wismutin the earlyfifties. Wolf's portrait of "the" workingclass hero, constructed fromseveral characters, has less in common withPabst's generically relatedKameradschaft (1932) than with Soviet documentariesof the twentiesor withSlatan Dudow's Unsertigliches Brot (1949). The highly episodic narrative,which consistsmore of individualshots than of scenes,is notablefor its naturalistic edge. This is all themore surpris- ingbecause DEFA filmsin thefifties rarely, if ever, touched on contro- versialissues such as sexual coercionof women workers,the black marketor themutual dislike and distrustbetween Soviet officers of the occupationarmy and Germanworkers under their direction. Yet pre- ciselyWolf's directness and honestyin showingpeople who participated in some of theworst moments in Germanhistory and thenhad to livewith this burden - fascism,brutal crimes, expulsion and flight fromwar-ravaged countries - makethese characters believable under theirdifficult labor conditionsand place thefilm among the most im- portantdocuments from this period in GDR history.7Nevertheless,

7. Producedin 1958, the filmwas not screenedpublicly until 1972 when it was

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MarcSilberman 173 the unmotivatedmelodramatic ending cannot be overlooked.The film'syoung female protagonist Lutz loses her husband in a mining accidentjust aftershe is once again able to laugh,that is, to overcome her distrustand embracethe future.Then she walkswith her young childinto the sunset as strainsof triumphantorchestral music swell in the background. Leutemit Fliigeln also attemptsto portraya workingclass hero in the presentas the consequence of personalhistory. This time,however, the filmstresses the "typical"instead of the contradictoryin the life storyof a singlefigure, an aerospace engineer.Wolf employs the con- trastof black-and-white stock for the historical scenes (memories of the thirties)and color stockfor scenes in the presentin a somewhatme- chanicalmanner, whereas in the laterGoya film he learnsto manipu- late color tonesand black-and-whitemuch more creativelyas a visual keyto changesin mood. I would attributethe successof Sterne,which launched Wolf into the internationallimelight, to the emotional chargeof its subject matter rather than to itsformal realization.8 Angel Wagenstein'sscript takes up the storyof threeyoung adults in 1943: a Jewishwoman in a refugeecamp waitingto be transportedto a death camp,a Germannon-com guarding the compound, who beginsto fall in love withher, and theGerman officer responsible for the prisoners, who presentsthe "friendly" face of fascism. Just as withMamlock, the youngman recognizesthe natureof his sympathyfor the woman too late. He could have saved her but missesthe opportunity.In closing, the filmsuggests that he may stilljoin the struggleof the partisans. Once againWolf employs unusual camera movements and contrasting shotsand anglesbut without their exaggerated, almost arbitrary use as in ProfessorMamlock. On theother hand, the film's dramaturgy tends to be dominatedby dialogue and obvious symbolism. In a discussionwith Soviet directors Wolf himselflater described shownboth on televisionand in cinemas.It was completedat exactlythe timewhen theSoviet Union and theUnited States were beginning to discussatomic weapon con- trols.Apparently a filmabout the struggleto increaseproductivity in the GDR uraniummines did notfit into the image of peaceful negotiations. Fourteen years later the filmwas releasedwith an additional,historicizing prologue which represents the film conflictas finishedand now overcome(a filmedtext with refrain-like explanations beginning "Damals ..." ["in those days ..."]) (cf. Egel 1974). 8. Sterne,a GDR-Bulgaria co-production, was screenedas theofficial Bulgarian en- tryat the 1959 Cannes Film Festivalbecause the GDR had no diplomaticties with France.The filmwon the "Prix speciale du Jury."

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 174 RememberingHistory this stylisticnaivete as the resultof uncertaintyabout his audience: "When makingmy earlierfilms I sometimesconsciously stopped be- lievingin thespectator, in hisability to comprehendthe stories that are takenfrom real life.I beganto constructsomething like a reflectionof life,'skirting the truth.'That was an enormousmistake" (Kasjanowa 1974, pp. 175-76).Wolf refers here to a problemwidespread in the GDR duringthe fifties, and not onlyin thecinema. 1960 was thepeak productionyear at the DEFA studios,but thefilms were typically light entertainmentfare that avoided anybut themost oblique referenceto real conditions.In contrast,Wolf, in his earlyfilms, takes up highly chargedconflicts and calls on strongemotions, abandoning the "happy ending"formula after his firstfilm. His plotsintroduce characters whoare caught in typicaland existentiallydemanding circumstances, buthe avoids harmonizing their individual fates. The filmmaker leaves no doubtas to his understandingof thehistorically "correct" path, evenin sometimesamazingly unreflected ways. Nonetheless, Wolf's partisanshipin theseearly films always aims at challengingthe spectatorto drawconclusions. Thereare two noteworthy patterns in this textual strategy. First, Wolf alwaysidentifies society's future, or itschangeability, with the younger generationof twentyto thirty-year-olds.Friedel, the committed but shamphysician in Genesung,Lissy, Lutz, the non-com officer in Sterne, theson of the Communist in Leute mit Fliigeln, and Mamlock's son bear thehope of the future and as suchare invested with great responsibili- tyby their "fathers." Beyond the possible autobiographical echoes of thisstructure, itpoints to an otherwisesubmerged social issue in the GDR - thegenerational conflict and theproblem of hierarchy for all patternsof change connected to it.Wolf certainly pays tribute to the achievementsand sacrifices of the older generation of partisans, but he does notoverlook their weaknesses. Max, the physically handicapped and demoralizedformer resistance fighter in Genesungwill regain con- trolof his legs and willeven begin to studyat theuniversity. Yet the strengthand imaginationfor his "healing" come exclusively from the youngFriedel. Lissy is almostentirely dependent on heryoung friends in herstruggle to finda wayout of her husband's Nazi activities.The onlyelder to whomshe can turnis herfather, a disillusionedSocial Democratand union member, who in fact throws her out of his home. Lutzis protectedby older friends and fellow workers, but not until the film'send does she act independently,after these "advisors" no longer

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MarcSilberman 175 exerciseinfluence. In Sternethe youngadults (victims,officers, partisans) are practicallythe only active people, whether oppressors or reb- els. Leutemit Fliigeln combines two "young generations":the model CommunistParty member of the thirties becomes involved in political activitiesagainst his father's will and twentyyears later in theGDR con- frontshis own son's politicalcommitment - a conflictwhich seems more anecdotal than political.Finally, Professor Mamlock becomes thevictim of the limitations in hispolitical liberalism, recognizing only just beforehe dies thathis son's courageousresistance is the onlyan- swerto NationalSocialism. For theyoung people the eldersmay rep- resenta sourceof solidarity,but theyalso symbolizethe need forper- manentstruggle, often as the verynegation of thatbond. In his laterfilms Wolf returns again and again to thisyoung generation,even to theyounger twenty-year-olds, while the role ofthe fathers diminishes.The demographictendency of ever younger audiences de- mandingfilms which treated their problems had begun to make itself feltin the GDR, as was the case internationallyin the 1960s. Socio- logically,this older generation's role in decision-makingin GDR socie- tywas waning(which is not to claim thata new generationof fathers did not establishitself in its place!). More important,though, is the newfilm dramaturgy developed by Wolf in thecourse of the sixties. By dispersingplot structureand relinquishingtraditional forms of audience addressbased on emotionalidentification, he can abandon the narrativestrategy which presentsthe spectatorwith a "reflectionof life,"one whichstrives to containin itselfa ready-madeinterpretation of reality. A second significantelement in theseearly films is the role of the women characters.Wolf extends the themeof women'semancipation embarkedupon by Dudow (Frauenschicksale,1952; VerwirrungderLiebe, 1959; and theunfinished Christine, 1963) with a seriesof femalefigures: Irene (Genesung),Lissy, Lutz (Sonnensucher),Ruth (the Jewish woman in Sterne)and Mamlock'scolleague Dr. Inge Ruoff(two others in laterfilms, Ritain Dergeteilte Himmel and Sunnyin SoloSunny, must be considered,as I arguebelow, in anotherlight). On theone hand,these women function as importantvehicles for the respective plot resolution:they either em- body a coming-to-consciousnessor act as a catalystfor the insightsof another(male) character. On theother hand, each ofthe female figures incorporates the stereotypicalimage of women as victim,that is, she finds her fulfillmentin renunciation,her social satisfactionin serving

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 176 RememberingHistory others'needs. In contrastto Wolf'smale protagoniststhe women become active,socially responsible characters through an emotionalen- gagement,through love relationships.More interesting,however, and more exceptionalin theseearly films is a characteristicof thewomen whichall themale figureslack: the ability to livein and liveout contra- dictorysituations - Irene, the wifeof the handicapped resistance fighterand former lover of the sham doctor; Lissy, wife of a pettybour- geois fascistand workingclass woman withan intacttradition of pro- gressivepolitical commitment; Lutz, workingwoman, motherand widow;Ruth, concentration camp prisonerand mentor in thebroadest possible sense; Inge Ruoff,doctor and Nazi sympathizeras wellas guide and rescuerof Mamlock'scommunist son. Wolftakes note of women's social role withits diverse and oftenmutually exclusive demands. Consequentlyhe multipliesthe identificatorypossibilities for the spectatorand thusawakens more sympathyfor them than for the male figures.That Wolfresorts still to harmonizingsuch conflictsby showingthe "triumphant"renunciation of his heroinesrather than probingfurther dialectically, confirms his suspicionthat he was "skirting the truth."His laterfilms no longerdo so. The filmingof ChristaWolf's novel Der geteilteHimmel remains thematicallyconsistent with Wolf's earlierwork yet marksa break- throughin thefilmmaker's formal development. If we considerWolf's filmsto be a sociallymediated structuring of reality in whicha process of coming-to-consciousnessis set in motionby his characters'experience and reflection,then it followsthat he is tryingto make thisprocess accessibleto his audience.Such access is, however,also mediated by theevolution of the particular national film industry as wellas cine- matictradition and, in thecase ofthe GDR in thefifties with its cultural programdefined by thenarrow strictures of socialistrealism, it was difficultto createnew modes of address.This dilemmaaccounts for the gap betweenintention and formalrealization in the earlyfilms, where a tendencytoward declamatorythematic explication often worksagainst the reflective, formal strategies. Der geteilte Himmel signals thebeginning of an attemptto overcomethis dilemma by insistingon a radicallynew narrativestructure and style.As a result,Wolf manages to avoid thegeneralizations and platitudesof the earlierfilms, relying increasinglyon associationaltechniques which assume the participation of the spectator in the constructionof conflicts. This breakthroughcannot be credited to Wolf alone. It is symptomatic that his scriptis adapted from a contemporaryliterary source,

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MarcSilberman 177 forsince about 1960 a new trendin the literaryscene knownas the "BitterfelderWeg" had begun,a trendwhich focused on everydayissues whileeschewing vulgar didacticism. Somewhat later a seriesof what are called "everydayfilms" ("AUtagsfilme") also began to appear,among themRolf Kirsten's Beschreibung eines Sommers (1962, also the adaptation of a contemporarynovel by Karl-HeinzJakobs), Egon Giinther'sLots Weib(1965) and GiintherRiicker's Die bestenJahre(1965). With the stress on currentissues, historical material diminishes in interest,and by ac- centingthe everyday nature of conflicts,the film characters' actions and motivationstend to becomeimpoverished. Yet at thesame time a formal languagebegins to evolvethat enriches the visual experience of the film storyand enhancesthe spectator'sparticipation in the constructionof thefilm characters' subjectivity. At timesthis innovative formalism gets out of control,as in Wolf'sfilm Der geteilte Himmel: hardly a shotfrom a normalangle, unexpected cuts from an extremelong shot to a close-up, almostevery frame calling attention to itselfby its unusual composition, as ifthe filmmaker were concerned with demonstrating his imaginative ideas more thanstructuring his filmictext. Yet this is theproduct, I believe,of a genuinedesire to overcomethe cliches of run-of-the-millso- cialist-realistfilmmaking. It can be no accidentthat Konrad Wolf discovered his impetusto renew the visuallanguage of the GDR filmin an adaptationof Christa Wolf'snovel (she is notrelated to thedirector). The storyconcerns the youngwoman Rita, who collapsesphysically when forced to choosebe- tweenher emotions and herconvictions after her lover leaves the GDR forWest Berlin - thedivided heaven of thetide. For Rita,the process of convalescenceentails reflection on thenature of language.Her final separationfrom Manfred is theresult of their inability to communicate, to assumethe same meaningswhen speakingthe same words.To the extentthat she rejectsthe oppressivefunction of languagewhen it absolutizesor rendersharmless, Rita is able to escapethe strait-jacket of her thoughtsand finallyto recognizethe discrepancybetween her world view and her experience.That this understandingalways in- dudes thedanger of failure, that the narrative presents no unproblema- ticaffirmation of socialistsociety as itexists, that the story is dominated by a toneof resignationand despondencyrather than ideological one- upmanship- all thiswas new to GDR literature,and all thistakes shape in Wolfs film.The challengeof transformingthe novel into a film involved representingmultiple narrativeperspectives which are

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 178 RememberingHistory interwovenon threeplanes: the first-personnarration in the present, the protagonist'sinternalized reflections, and the third-personnarra- tionof theprotagonist's past. The dispersalof the narrative onto three planesdefines the reader's role and demandsan activeprocess of reading.The director'stask was to findcinematic techniques which would engagethe spectator in theprocess of constructing the narrative plot so as to stimulatea similarself-reflective activity. For that,five scriptwrit- ers (includingChrista Wolf and KonradWolf) worked together to find a satisfactorysolution (Der geteilte Himmel 1964, p. 569ff.)As Christa Wolfconfirmed, the film's success is theresult of thescriptwriters' re- fusalsimply to illustratethe epic work:"That thefilm [... .] is a successful'adaptation' must be attributedto thefact that the film differs from thestory: and as remarkableor interestingas itmay seem, nobody no- ticedthat; at leastthe difference appears to createthe impression that it is a successful'adaptation"' (C. Wolf 1964, p. 51). As I have triedto demonstrate,Wolf was able in his earlyfilms to take the firststeps beyond classical filmdramaturgy. The narrative framingin Genesungand Sterneanticipates the consistent use oftwo narrative levels in Der geteilteHimmel, where they are necessaryfor analyzingfeelings and thoughts.The complicatedmontage sequences in Lissyand ProfessorMamlock lead in thelater film to a muchfreer, asso- ciativehandling of timeand space in orderto definethe logic of the emotions.The shortvisionary sequences in Sonnensucherand the con- trastbetween color and black-and-whitestock in Leutemit Fliigeln are unsophisticatedantecedents to thereconstructive acts of memory,the interiormonologues of Rita. The goal ofall theseexperiments is notto narratea storybut to formulatesituations which the spectator must in- vest withmeaning. This is especiallypronounced in the film'sepic structureof complicatedmontage sequences. By means of foreshort- ened cameraangles, repeated interruptions in theflow of the plot, and symbolicimages such as the highwayoverpass or the river,Wolf establishesa fragmentarystyle of representationthat functionsnot throughsuspense but in a Brechtiankind of dialectic. The three-partconversation in the middle of the filmexemplifies the means bywhich the filmmaker combines a centralthematic motif withsubtle formal techniques. The interchangetakes place at a ban- quet organizedby Rita's factory.An older, highlyrespected worker tellsRita about his proletarianbackground, the war and his yearsas a prisoner of war in Siberia. Cut parallel to and framedwith the firstpair

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MarcSilberman 179 in a wall mirrorbehind them are Rita'sshop foremanand Manfred, who are arguingradically opposed viewsof history.Although neither pair is awareof the other,they are directlyconnected by thecamera's carefulframing. Rita, who listenssilently, is fromthe spectator'spoint ofview filmically confronted with these variously articulated philosophical positionson historicalnecessity. The followingshot - in Manfred's atticroom - leads into a dialogue betweenhim and Rita about his dream of a sinkingboat, the metaphoricalanticipation of theirship- wreckedrelationship as well as a symbolicrepresentation of theirop- posingsocial expectations. A laterscene, which marks the turning point in the love story,reveals such an overlappingof meaningsin another way.At a partywith his universitycolleagues, who are sarcasticallyin- troducedby a seriesof close-ups and a longtracking shot, a disappointed and cynicalManfred learns from a friendthat his researchproject has been rejected.This socialgathering, which the camera clearly pres- entsas composedof twogroups - thesensitive and thearrogant ones - correspondsto thetension between the lovers. At a pointwhere Rita identifiesherself with the first group, Manfred agrees with the simple- minded self-righteousnessof the other.The shotthen freezes (a long shotof the group),the backgroundnoise and the dance music cease, and the scene dissolvesinto the presentas Rita rememberswhen she firstread Manfred'sletter from West Berlin. A poeticquality grows out of thefilm's rhythmic punctuation of re- peatedshots, which also servesto guidethe spectator through the shifts fromone narrativeplane to another.The wide-angleshot of a poplar- linedroad, the intersection in frontof Rita'sfactory from a highangle, theclose-up of Ritaconvalescing in bed, thehighway overpass outside herwindow which is linkedmore and morefrequently with her recov- ery,the footbridge to theriver always shot from an extremelow angle: these are only a fewexamples of the many strategicallyshot frames whichcomplicate the narrativeflow in orderto make it meaningful. SimilarlyWolf uses music (a combinationof jazz quotes and popular songs)and noise to commenton imagesequences, often in strikingor unusualways. The WestBerlin scene near the end ofthe film is a good example.The highlystylized, almost exaggeratedly comic encounter of the two loversis accompaniedby electricorgan chordswhich sound like the cacophony of automobile horns. With such sober, astute compositionalprinciples Wolf is able to constructa highlycomplex - and contradiction-laden- image of socialist realities.Like the novel,

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 180 RememberingHistory thefilm was greetedwith criticism and bewildermentby some review- ers and spectatorsbecause itwas deemed too intellectualand too demanding.Such negativeviews stem from those widespread, habitual receptionpatterns which Wolf was tryingto counteract:a positivehero and a clearlymarked, optimistic resolution. In addition,critics sus- pectedthat the dissolution of spatio-temporalrelations into paratactic and iterativepatterns pushed the filmin the directionof "bourgeois modernism"(Fellini was the red herringmentioned in thiscontext). Yetin retrospect,this non-linear structure, interrupted by associatively juxtaposedflashbacks and flashforwards,effectively reproduces Rita's processof coming to herselfand representsthe turning point in Wolfs directorialwork. Ten yearslater Wolf candidly stated that he no longerconsidered thisfilm to be among his successes.He came to the conclusionthat "we gotstuck in unresolvedformal problems in thesearch for an original and adequate filmstructure for ChristaWolf's novel structure" (Wischnewski1975, p. 26). I thinkthis judgment is too harshbecause it overlooksthe factthat working on these formalproblems, even the unresolvedones, saved Wolf froma dead end. WithoutDer geteilte Himmelfilms such as Ichwar neunzehn, Der nackte Mann aufdem Sportplatz, Mama,ich lebe, and Solo Sunnywould be unthinkable.The director avoids visual distantiationand sudden rupturesin these laterfilms withoutabandoning his dialecticalview of reality.Wolf becomes in- creasinglycomfortable with open textualstructures and emphasizes more and more forthrightlythe unheroicquality of everydaylife. At thesame timehe takesimagination seriously, not in a didacticway but ratheras a pointof departure for careful observation. These laterfilms, then,are characterizedby theirthoroughly undramatic form; they intendto make realityvisible by tracingwhat seem to be thenon-essen- tialdetails and achievein thisway an authenticity.A crucial ingredient in these later filmswas Wolf's collaborationwith the scriptwriter WolfgangKohlhaase, who had alreadyestablished a reputationfor successfulscenarios about the problemsof youth(e.g., Eine Berliner Romanze,1956, and Berlin- EckeSchiinhauser, 1957, both directedby GerhardKlein). Together with the cameraman Werner Bergmann, the triocoined a laconicnarrative style that no longerdepends on the ex- ternalplot motivationof a strugglebetween positive and negativefig- ures but ratherrests on a principleof innerdramaturgy for delving intothe intellectualand affectiveworld of the main character.To this

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MarcSilberman 181 end examples of formalinnovation in the Sovietcinema of the time were especiallyimportant to Wolf,for instance,Grigori Chukhrai's Ballad ofa Soldier(1959) and MikhailRomm's NineDays in One Year (1961) in the case ofIch warneunzehn (Wolf 1964, p. 56). This film holds a privilegedplace in Wolf's oeuvre and can be counted, in my opinion, among the most successfulDEFA studio productionsin general.Wolf had leftbehind him the dimensionof grandexistential questions - fascismor resistance,Germany's defeat and division- withoutforsaking his politicalthematic. In Ich war neunzehnhe is stillstruggling with the problem of how to pose political questionsmeaningfully by asking:What does it mean to be a German today?Gregor's basic conflictderives from his inabilityas a returnee ("Heimkehrer")to recognizenot onlyrationally but also emotionally and empiricallythat Germany is his home. Thus timeand timeagain theSoviet soldier born in Germanyreacts shyly and onlyinvoluntarily to thequestion of national identity. In fact,the film is an elaborationof Wolfs own diariesfrom the last days of the War (Ruschin1968, pp. 5- 25). Here he describeshis feelingsof hate,powerlessness and hope towardthe events with a sensitivitythat allows for no distance.The film opposes this historicaldirectness to the subjectivityof memory. Gregor,who oftenreacts in a confused,embarrassed or simplynaive manner,whether in comic or tragicsituations, exposes his emotions and innocence.Six independentepisodes, framed by a prologueand an epilogue (theirjournal-like character underscored by introductory tidesand the short,informative comments of a voice-overnarrator), presentthis "hero." The taskof thespectator is to constructquestions and answers,theses and counterthesesout of thejuxtaposition of the episodes withtheir contrapuntal motifs. Cameraworkis, of course, indispensablein the film's structural composition.Bergmann's experience with short films and documen- tariesconverge with the main character'sobservant posture. Despite a scriptplanned out in carefuldetail, the film gives an impressionof im- proviseddirection which seems particularlyapt forcapturing the material'sgesture of authenticitywith seemingly uncomplicated and in- conspicuoustechnical means. A scene towardthe film'sbeginning is exemplaryin theway the camera,with a single,long, calm pan, feels itsway gently around the room and objectsof a deceased elderlywom- an. In addition,sections of documentaryfootage are intercut:archival shotsof battlesand ravagedlandscapes as well as a long scene froma

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Soviet documentaryabout the Sachsenhausenconcentration camp (TodeslagerSachsenhausen, 1946) in whicha camp guardquietly and with amazingcomplacency talks about how thedeath apparatus functioned. The factthat this sequence (and a laterconversation in thefourth epi- sode betweentwo SS-officersin the Spandau fortress)cannot possibly be explainedfrom Gregor's point of view - thatis, it introducesa break in the narrativeperspective - is symptomaticof the film's structure.This very break intensifies the uniqueness of the horror that is shownhere and guaranteesthe shock on thepart of the main character as well as of the spectator.That the Sachsenhausenfootage is further- moreinterrupted twice by short shots of Gregorunder a showercreates a strikingimage that immediately brings to mind the associativemon- tage sequences in Der geteilteHimmel. Here the techniqueserves to heightenGregor's feeling of ambivalencetoward the Germansin the film(soldiers, officers, refugees, anti-fascist resistance fighters, etc.) and his sensitivitytoward the questionof self-identityas a German. On anotherlevel too thefilm poses thisquestion in a subtleway. The consistentuse of nature - both in image and theme - suggestsa pe- culiarlyGerman narrative of which Gregor is just barelyconscious. The imagesof a peacefulOderbruch landscape in theprologue, disrupted bya slowlyturning raft with a Germandeserter hanging by a noose; the scenewith the landscape architect sitting in frontof a largepainting of a gardenas he triesto justify philosophically his "inneremigration" duringthe preceding years; immediately after that the shot of a kitschsun- down withcroaking frogs in the backgroundwhile Gregor's friend re- citesHeine's famouspoem "Ich hatteeinstein schdnes Vaterland .. ."; finally,the penultimate sequence where Gregor's grief for his senseless- lykilled comrade turns into despair and thecamera blends into an endless pull-backtracking shot during which the frame expands to include firstGregor, then the pond, thenthe road, then the whole countryside: theinterweaving of thesenatural motifs produces resonances of an in- heritedtradition which once again is linkedto Gregor'sbasic conflict. Similarlythe filmmusic: it consistsnot of an originalscore but of quotes,notably from German music - fromBach's "GoldbergVaria- tions," the folksong"Ahnchen von Tharau," the Prussian"Hohen- friedbergMarch," the Spanish Civil War song "Rio Guarama"sung by ErnstBusch. Wolf achieves an extraordinarytextual density in thisfilm which invitesthe spectatorto share in the main character'scoming-to- consciousness so thatthe spectator'sown sensitivitymight in turnlead to self-reflection.

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Wolfand his teamessentially perfect this approach in his subsequent films.Rather than providing narrow interpretations of events, he treats thematerial or therespective film characters as encounters(the sculptor Kemmelin Der nackte Mann aufdem Sportplatz, the four German soldiers in Mama,ich lebe, and thepop singerSunny in SoloSunny). He concentrates his attentionon the nuanced shiftsin the figures'assumptions and behavior,while leaving to the spectatorthe responsibilityof explaining thecontradictions in theprosaic rhythms of dailylife. Der nackte Mann is remarkablefor its almostunfinished camera work, more laconiceven thanin Ichwar neunzehn. The filmaims at the mostsensuous, non-ab- stractexperience possible of artisticcreation by constructingthe narra- tivelogic around the dailyroutine of thesculptor Kemmel, who strug- gleswith narrow, popular notions of art's function in society.Perhaps the dominantatmosphere of understatement,of banality,which Wolf uses to humanizehis artistfigure, explains the cinema audience's resistance to thefilm with its highly demanding paratactic form. It remainedone of theleast successful DEFA filmsat thebox officeduring the seventies. A laterfilm, Mama, ich lebe, again takes up memoriesof World War II and as such continuesexplicitly Wolf's examination of Germanidentity. Four Germanprisoners of war in theSoviet Union voluntarily agree to partici- pate in an anti-fascistretraining program. Later three of themare sent behind German battlelines as partisansand killed.This "betrayal" appears even strangerthan it mightbecause the plot unfoldsin an almostpeaceful atmosphere. Yet the reality of war is practicallyinvisible in thiswar film in thatit focuses on theuncertainties and inhibitionsof thesefour Germans in theirSoviet environment. At firstglance Solo Sunny seems to returnto the patternof an action filmsuch as Lissy.Yet the exposition of a highlydramatic plot and character- thesinger's performance, her unhappy love affair, the suicide attempt,the new beginning- barelyconceals the intrinsicallyepisodic qualityof the dramaturgyevolved by Wolfover the precedingtwenty years.The quick-pacedmontage sequences and editingduring the film's firsthalf, the energetic use of thecamera with its rapid movements and the livelymusical rhythms all contributeto the discontinuoustextual structure(Wolf and Kohlhaase1984). In thisrespect, it recalls Der geteilte Himmel,also because of the stylizedphotography and thefemale lead. Contraryto his earlierfemale figures, these women are not satisfiedto make a "correct" politicalchoice and join the men in the politicalstruggle. What theyhave achieved politicallyis self-evidentto them,and they

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 184 RememberingHistory now makemore radical demands on societyto liveas full-fledgedpeo- ple withall theiremotional and intellectualcapabilities. In SoloSunny Wolfonce again followsa woman's difficultprocess of self-discovery throughher vulnerability and distress.In contrastto thereflective, even passivetendency in Rita,Sunny is insistent.She is intense,assertive and does not fearthe provocationsof her environment,especially those of the men around her. The claim forself-realization, here carriedby a youngwoman, was an attemptby Wolf to respondto thecultural policy situationin the seventies,especially to the criticalretrospective and de- batewhich took place at theThird Congress of Filmand TelevisionPro- ducersin May, 1977 (Wischnewski1980). That Wolfchose in thisfilm such an uncompromisingnon-conformist as the main character earned him sharpattacks, but thishighly successful production represents in facta summaryof his entireaesthetic and thematicdevelopment as a filmmaker. Two otherfilms from Wolf's late period are somewhatless typicalfor thisdevelopment. Goya oder Der arge Weg der Erkenntnis is an historicalepic aboutthe Spanish painter Francisco de Goyaadapted from Lion Feucht- wanger'snovel of the same title(1951). Feuchtwangerfocuses on theartist'spersonality as itasserts itself among opposing social forces - monarchy,church, revolution. As such,the Goya figureshares the ethical forceof Brecht'sGalileo in the struggleto liveout the relationshipbe- tweenart and politics,between radical formal experiment and revolu- tionarycontent. When Goya's "demons" are materialized,when he can trapthem on canvas,he makesvisible the reactionary, oppressive conditionsof his belovedSpanish homeland during the FrenchRevolution. Wolf,for his part,takes this figure as an opportunityto investigatethe historicaland psychologicallimits of the creative personality, yielding an incrediblydense text that encompasses not only the Goya story but also echoesFeuchtwanger's experience as an artistin politicalexile as wellas his own practicalknowledge about theeffect of constraintson imagina- tionin theGDR. In one sense,Goya is thehistorical counterpart to the artistKemmel in Dernackte Mann, but aestheticallyspeaking, one could hardlyimagine a widergap betweenthe twofilms. Not onlythe enor- mous productionapparatus, including actors and techniciansfrom eight countriesand on-locationshooting spread all overeastern Europe, but also thetendency toward a mega-filmin theHollywood studio style has littlein common with Wolfs previous practice. He himselfexpressed certaininhibitions about filminga scriptto which he had no director

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Marc Silberman 185 personal access, as had been the case in all previousfeatures (H. Herlinghaus1971, p. 13).That might explain why the entire last part of thefilm fails. In picture-bookfashion, we "page" throughthe painter's latework intercut with staged scenes from the Spanish Revolution. Here thereis none ofthe authenticity that Wolf was able to formulateso con- vincinglyin otherfilms. Instead he introducesa declamatory,folkloristic qualitythat is supposedto suggestthe latent power and anguishof the commonpeople. However,Wolf's skill does surfacein theeloquent music and the carefuluse of colornuances from Goya's paintings. Wolf'slast project, completed only after his death, was a six-parttelevision serieson thefolksinger Ernst Busch. Wolf is creditedwith the idea and artisticresponsibility for the entire series as wellas directingtwo of the segments. Part III, 1933 oder Das FaiJder Pandora,is a relatively straightforwarddocumentary film consisting of archivalmaterial, filmed interviewsand a selectionof Busch songs which stress the struggle of the artistagainst the growing fascist threat in Germany.Part V, Ein Toterauf Urlaub,concerns Wolf as muchas it does Busch,for here the filmmaker embarkson a kindof archaeologicaljourney, following the traces of the folksinger'sexile, flight,imprisonment and liberation(cf. Buschsingt 1982).At thesame time,however, it is a self-presentation:the counter- posingof thedirector's anti-fascist youth with reflections on his own ar- tisticdevelopment. Without exaggeration or falsepathos Wolf employs a broad rangeof filmictechniques to transformhistorical experience into the artisticprocess. He succeedstoo in creatinga poignanthomage to Buschwhich gains credibility from the dialecticalplay of objectiveand subjectivenarratives about history. Historicizingmemory, remembering history: Konrad Wolf's films call forththis process by addressingthe question of his own place in history as wellas thelarger problem of nationalidentity in Germany.That the main charactersin his last filmsare almostall artists(Goya, Kemmel, Sunny,Ernst Busch) indicatesWolf's diversion from epochal political questionsto an explorationof experiencesof isolation,disappointment and failurein theprivate sphere. Yet these characters all taketheir place withinparticular social structures, and theirstruggles and sufferingsare theconsequence of everyday social pressures. Wolf's protagonists, espec- iallythe artists, all seekhappiness and self-realization,even if that is only possibledespite and againstsocial norms. In the criticalrepresentation of the everyday,Wolf discovered a vehicle both forrevealing the mecha- nisms of social change and for articulatingthe responsibilityof individuals to realize such change.

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WorksCited

Barthel,Kurt. 1964. "Dergeteilte Himmel - Zur filmischenUmsetzung." FilmwissenschafJtlicheMitteilungen 5.3: 565-95. Bergmann,Werner. 1974. "Gespraichmit Werner Bergmannam 16.11.1973."Aus Theorie und Praxis des Films 1. "Filmmonographie Dernackte Mann aufdem Sportplatz" (VEB DEFA- Spielfilme):24-37. Blunk,Harry. 1984. Die DDR in ihrenSpielfilmen. Miinchen: Profil. Brasch,Thomas. 1982. "Er drehtesich um und gingweg." Nachruf auf KonradWolf. Filmfaust 28/29: 13. Busch singt. (1982) Sechs Filme uiber die erst H~ilftedes 20. Jahrhunderts.Eine Dokumentation.Berlin/GDR: Akademie der Kiinsteder DDR. Dalichow,Barbel (ed.). 1983.Regie: Konrad Wolf Potsdam: Filmmuseum. Egel, Karl Georg and Paul Wiens. 1974. Sonnensucher.Filmerzdihlung. Berlin:Henschel. Gregor,Ulrich. 1977. "Konrad Wolf:Auf der Suche nach Heimat." Filmin derDDR. Miinchen:Hanser. 77-98. Herlinghaus,Hermann. 1971. "Gespraichmit Konrad Wolf." Weimarer Beitridge.17:12: 10-27. Herlinghaus,Ruth (ed.). 1971. Goya.Vom Roman zum Film. Berlin/GDR: DeutscheAkademie der Kiinste. Kasjanowa,Ludmilla and AnatoliKarawaschkin (eds.). 1974.Begegnungen mitRegisseuren. Berlin/GDR: Henschel. 133-86. Klunker,Heinz. 1980. "Sunny politischSorgen herzungewisse.Zur deutsche-deutschenRezeption des DEFA-Films Solo Sunny." JahrbuchFilm 80/81. Ed. Hans GuinterPflaum. Munich/Vienna: Hanser. KonradWolf. 1985a. Selbstzeugnisse,Fotos, Dokumente. Eds. BarbaraKoppe and Aune Rank. Berlin/GDR:Henschel. KonradWolf im Dialog. 1985b. Kiinste und Politik. Eds. DieterHeinze and LudwigHoffmann. Berlin/GDR: Dietz. Problemedes sozialistischenRealismus in der darstellendenKunst. 1964. Behandeltam Beispieldes DEFA-FilmsDer geteilte Himmel. Berlin/ GDR: Akademieder Kuinste. Richter,Rolf. 1983. "Konrad Wolf." DEFA-Spielfdmregisseureund ihre Kritiker.Ed. RolfRichter. Berlin/GDR: Henschel: 250-87. Ruschin,Thomas (ed.). 1968. DerFilm "Ich war neunzehn". Intention und Wirkung.Berlin/GDR: Akademie der Kuinste.

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Silberman,Marc. 1986. "Erinnern- Erzahlen- Filmen.Die Filmevon Konrad Wolf." AlbrechtSch6ne (ed.). Kontroversen,alte undneue. Aktendes VII. IntemationalenGermanisten-Kongresses. Tiibingen: Niemeyer.10: 339-352. Sylvester,Regina. 1980. "Rot ist eine schone Farbe." Gespraichmit KonradWolf und EberhardGeick. Sonntag 18. Tok, Hans-Dieter.1972. "Konrad Wolf."Regiestiihle. Ed. Fred Gehler. Berlin/GDR:Henschel. 111-28. Wischnewski,Klaus. 1975. "Aufder Suche nach dem Lebenszentrum." Werkstattgespraichmit KonradWolf. Film und Fernsehen 4: 18-26. .1980. "Was heilt denn 'Happy End' ... Ein Gespraichiiber SoloSunny" [mit Konrad Wolf und WolfgangKohlhaase]. Film und Fernsehen1: 9-15. Wolf,Christa. 1964. "Diskussionsbeitrag."Probleme 1964. 51-4. Wolf,Konrad. 1964. "Diskussionsbeitrag."Probleme 1964. 55-61. ----. "SozialistischerFilm. Erforschung des Unerforschten." Gespraich.1965.mit Heinz Baumert.Filmwissenschaftliche Mitteilungen 2: 366-83. ----.1975. "In Amerika."Gesprach mit KonradWolf. Film und Fernsehen9. 1984. "Selbstaulerungen."Sinn und Form. 36:5: 897-902. Wolf,.----.Konrad and WolfgangKohlhaase. 1984. Solo Sunny.Ed. Lars Bardramand Bent Lantow.Copenhagen: Gjellerup & Gad.

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Konrad WolfFilmography

Einmalist keinmal (1955) Script:Paul Wiens,Dramaturgy: Karl GeorgEgel, Camera: Werner Bergmann,Music: GuinterKochan, Sets: Alfred Tolle, Producer:Alex- ander Ldsche, Cast: Horst Drinda (PeterWeselin), Brigitte Krause (Anna Hunzele),Paul Schulz-Wernburg(Edeltanne), Annemone Haase (Elvira),Christoph Engel (Erwin),Friedrich Gnass (Hunzele), Georg Niemann(Diidelit-Diidelat), Lotte Loebinger (Muhme), Hilmar Thate (Buhlemann).

Genesung(1956) Script:Karl Georg Egel/PaulWiens, Dramaturgy:Willi Briickner, Camera: Werner Bergmann,Music: Joachim Werzlau, Sets: Willi Schiller,Producer: Eduard Kubat,Cast: KarlaRunkehl (Irene Schorn), Wolfgang Kieling (Friedel Walter), Wilhelm Koch-Hooge (Max Kerster),Wolfgang Langhoff (Ernst Mehlin), Eduard von Winterstein (ProfessorBehaim), Erika Dunkelmann (head nurse),Angela Brunner (nurseHilda), HarryHindemith (public prosecutor).

Lissy(1956) Script:Alex Wedding/KonradWolf, Hans-Joachim Wallstein, Cam- era:Werner Bergmann/Hans Heinrich, Music: Joachim Werzlau, Sets: GerhardHelwig, Producer: Eduard Kubat,Cast: Sonja Sutter(Lissy), Horst Drinda (Fromeyer),Hans-Peter Minetti (Paul Schroder),Kurt Oligmiiller(Kaczmierczik), Gerhard Bienert (Lissy's father), Else Wolz (Lissy'smother), Raimund Schelcher (Max Franke)Christa Gottschalk (Toni Franke).

Sonnensucher(1958) Script:Karl Georg Egel/PaulWiens, Camera: WernerBergmann, Music: Joachim Werzlau, Sets: Karl Schneider,Producer: Hans- JoachimSchoeppe, Cast: UlrikeGermer (Lutz), Giinther Simon (Franz Beier),Erwin Geschonneck (Jupp K6nig), Victor Avdyushkho (Sergei Melnikov),Vladimir Yemelyanov (Major Fedosseyev),Willi Schrade (GtinterHollek), Manja Behrens(Emmi Jahnke),Norbert Christian (JosefStein), Erich Franz (Weihrauch).

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Sterne(1959) Script:Angel Wagenstein,Dramaturgy: Willi BriAckner,Camera: WernerBergmann, Music: Simeon Pironkhov,Sets: Maria Ivanovna/ AlfredDrosdek, Producer:Siegfried Nuirnberger/Vyltsho Draganov, Cast: Sasha Khrusharskha(Ruth), Juirgen Frohriep (Walter), Erik S. Klein (Kurt),Stefan Peytshev (Bai Petko),Georgi Naumov (Blashe), Ivan Kondov (Ruth's father),Milkha Tuykhova(a female partisan), StilyanKunev ("doc").

Leutemit Fliigeln (1960) Script:Karl Georg Egel/PaulWiens, Dramaturgy:Willi Brickner, Camera: Werner Bergmann, Music: Hans-Dieter Hosalla, Sets: Gerhard Helwig, Producer: Siegfried Niirnberger,Cast: Erwin Geschonneck (Bartuschek),Wilhelm Koch-Hooge (Dr. Lamert), Hilmar Thate (Henne), Franz Kutschera(Dr. Dehringer),Rosita Fernandez(Ines), Otto Dietrichs(Dr. Klinger),Fred Mahr (Friedrich), Georg Gudzent (Max), Mathilde Danegger (Mother Friedrich), NorbertChristian (Kneipack), Albert Hetterle (Alyosha).

ProfessorMamlock (1961) Script:Karl Georg Egel/KonradWolf, Dramaturgy: Willi Briickner, Camera:Werner Bergmann/Ginter Ost, Music: Hans-DieterHosalla, Sets: Harald Horn, Producer:Hans-Joachim Funk, Cast: Wolfgang Heinz (ProfessorMamlock), Ursula Burg (Ellen Mamlock),Hilmar Thate (Rolf Mamlock), Lissy Tempelhof (Dr. Inge Ruoff),Doris Abesser(Ruth Mamlock), Ulrich Thein (Ernst),Harald Halgardt(Dr. Hellpach), HerwartGrosse (Dr. Carlsen),Peter Sturm (Dr. Hirsch), Franz Kutschera(Dr. WernerSeidel).

Der geteilteHimmel (1964) Script:Christa and GerhardWolf/Konrad Wolf/Willi Bruckner/Kurt Barthel,Dramaturgy: Willi Bruckner,Camera: Werner Bergmann, Music: Hans-Dieter Hosalla, Sets: Alfred Hirschmeier,Producer: Hans-JoachimFunk, Cast: Renate Blume (Rita Seidel), Eberhard Esche (ManfredHerrfurth), Hans Hardt-Hardtloff(Rolf Meternagel), HilmarThate (Wendland),Martin Florchinger (Mr. Herrfurth),Erika Pelikowsky(Mrs. Herrfurth),Giinther Grabbert (Schwarzenbach), HorstJonischkan (Martin Jung), Petra Kelling (Sigrid).

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Der kleinePrinz (1966) [Television film] Script:Angel Wagenstein, Dramaturgy: Klaus Wischnewski,Camera: GiinterMarczinkowsky, Music: KirilCibulka, Sets: Alfred Hirschmeier, Producer:Herbert Ehler, Cast: ChristelBodenstein (Prince), Eberhard Esche (Pilot),Inge Keller(Snake), Klaus Piontek(Fox), Anna-Katherina Matschat(Rose), WolfgangHeinz (King),Horst Schulze (Vain man), Fred Diiren(Lantern lighter), Jorgen Holtz (Businessman).

Ich war neunzehn(1968) Script:Wolfgang Kohlhaase/Konrad Wolf, Dramaturgy:Gerhard Wolf,Camera: Werner Bergmann, Sets: Alfred Hirschmeier, Producer: HerbertEhler, Cast: Jaecki Schwarz (Gregor), Vassili Livanov (Vadim), Alexei Eibishenkho (Sasha), Galina Polskich (Soviet girl), Jenny Gr6llmann(German girl), Michail Glusski (general), Anatoli Solovyov (policewoman),Kalmursa Rachmanov (Dsingis), Rolf Hoppe (major), WolfgangGreese (landscape architect).

Goyaoder Der arge Wegder Erkenntnis (1971) Script:Angel Wagenstein/Konrad Wolf, Dramaturgy: Walter Janka/ AlexanderDymschitz, Camera: Werner Bergmann/Konstantin Ryshov, Music: Kara and Faradsh Karayev,Sets: AlfredHirschmeier/Valerie Yurkevitsh,Producer: Herbert Ehler/Genrich Chochlov, Cast: Donatas Banionis(Goya), Olivera Katarina (Princess Alba), Fred Duren (Esteve), TatyanaLolova (Queen Maria Luisa), Rolf Hoppe (King Carlos IV), MieczyslawVoit (Grand Inquisitor),Ernst Busch (Jovellanos),Gustav Holoubeck (Bermudez),Wolfgang Kieling (Godoy), Michail Kasakov (Guillemardet).

Der nackteMann aufdem Sportplatz(1974) Script: Konrad Wolf/WolfgangKohlhaase, Dramaturgy:Gerhard Wolf,Camera: Werner Bergmann, Music: Karl-Ernst Sasse, Sets: Alfred Hirschmeier,Producer: Herbert Ehler, Cast: Kurt Bowe (Kemmel), UrsulaKarusseit (Gisi), Martin Trettau (Hannes), Giinter Schubert (ma- son),Else Grube-Deister(collective farm director), Helmut Strassburger (manwith glasses), Erika Pelikowsky (Aunt Marie), Dieter Franke (facto- rydirector), Werner St6tzer (mayor), Walter Lendrich (cashier), Marga Legal (apprentice),Ute Lubosch (Regine),Vera Oelschlegel (Miss Fritze),Katharina Thalbach (soldier'swife).

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MarcSilberman 191

Mama,ich lebe (1977) Script:Wolfgang Kohlhaase/Konrad Wolf, Dramaturgy:Wolfgang Beck/GiunterKlein/Klaus Wischnewski/Dieter Wolf, Camera: Werner Bergmann,Music: ReinerBohm, Sets:Alfred Hirschmeier, Producer: HerbertEhler, Cast: Peter Prager(Becker), Uwe Zerbe (Pankonin), Eberhard Kirchberg(Koralevski), Detlef Giess (Kuschke),Donatas Banionis (Mauris),Margarita Terechova (Svetlana), Yevgeni Kindinov (Glunski),Michail Vasskov (Kolya), Ivan Lapitkov(general).

SoloSunny (1980) Co-director:Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Script: Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Dramaturgy:Jutta Voigt/Dieter Wolf, Camera: Eberhard Geick, Music: GiinterFischer, Sets: Alfred Hirschmeier, Producer: Herbert Ehler, Cast: RenateKr6ssner (Sunny), Alexander Lang (Ralph),Dieter Montag (Har- ry),Heide Kipp (Christine),Klaus Brach(Norbert), Fred Duiren(physician), Harald Warmbrunn(Benno Bohne), Regine Doreen (Monike), Hans-JiirgenHuirig (Hubert), Klaus Hindel (Bernd).

Buschsingt (1981/1982) [Television series] Conceptionand ArtisticDirector: Konrad Wolf,Directors: Reiner Bredemeyer/ErwinBurkert/Ludwig Hoffmann/Peter Voigt/Konrad Wolf, Camera: Eberhard Geick/LotharKeil/Ernst Oeltze, Producer: Hans-JoachimFunk, Narrator: Jiirgen Holtz/Ulrich Teschner (Part III and PartV directedby KonradWolf).

This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:47:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TheAmerican Journal of SEMIOTICS Editedby Dean MacCannell & Juliet Flower MacCannell

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